what if?
by carojeans
Summary: The rebellion didn't work. Katniss ran away with Gale after she survived the 74th. It is now the 100th hunger games, and the life of Caroline Jeans is about to be completely destroyed.
1. complications

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**okay so just so you know, I own no rights to the hunger games, or anything like that.**

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><p>Chapter One:<p>

I love water. It's so peaceful under the waves, floating around and swimming, not to mention the guys swimming with me... meet rick: the hotshot of district 4. He's confident, cocky, funny, attractive, and doesn't know I exist. Now, meet Quincy: quiet, sweet, and cute, and knows I exist. Kinda. I really like them both for different reasons, and yeah.  
>My mind was wandering in the fantasy that is my underwater world, when the bell rang and ripped me out of my escape of water and bubbles and light. It made me remember. The 4th quarter quell. This is gonna be big, and, frankly, I'm scared.<p>

I don't remember walking out of the water, getting to my beachside house, or even getting dressed, but yet here I am, in my gorgeous navy blue dress that my grandma made for me, with my chocolate hair, wavy and loose, cascading over my bare shoulders and down my back. My mom's heart shaped necklace around my neck, and my symbol: a small anklet made out of a thin copper wire with red white and blue beads tied into it. It's been on my ankle for months, much to the disapproval of my parents, but whatever. I made it to prove a point: that I can do what i want, without help, and nobody can stop me.

When the reaping hour finally arrived, I went to the "pool," which isn't really a pool at all, more like a crowd of frantic teens. I quickly found Tom, my best friend, and stood with him as president Ice read the quarter quell scroll. "Hello district 4! We have happily reached the 100th hunger games! This means this is in fact the 4th quarter quell, which is why we're starting the reapings in this fine district 4. Now, I'll skip the boring details and go straight to what you've all been waiting to hear. As you all must know, the quarter quells are special games, with special changes in the rules. This year, we're going to have bot 24, not 48, but 72 tributes! Yes, this means that there will be 3 male tributes and 3 female tributes. Now, let us begin the reaping."

The reaping itself was a blur. 2 other girls that I don't really know's names getting called. Their families crying. My name getting called. I vaguely remember crying, but thats it. I think my family was bawling, but I'm not sure. All I remember was Tom hugging me, telling me to please come back alive, for him, and my sister Maranda grabbing my arm, and slipping a locket in my hand, and me crying, and hugging my sister, the next thing I remember is being on the stage and hearing Ricks name, then Quincy. Then Tom. The tears keep on streaming down. I look at my family. My sister's bawling, my moms screaming, my dads just staring into nothingness.

My mom, shell-shocked from the loss of Grandad, (the best, kindest, wisest man that will ever live) is shaking her head. She did her best to protect us from the gore and carnage of the games, mainly because she experienced it, and it scarred her. Yes, my mom's a victor, and I can see it in her eyes that she's worried that I might not have her luck. She looks disappointed, like she failed, and she did, in a way. She failed to protect me and Maranda from the horror of the games. I try to smile, for her sake, but the best i can do is pull one corner of my mouth up a bit and shrug. I wish I can run over there and hug her, tell her I'll be fine, and I'll come back. I wish that I was closer to my mom, maybe then I would have been able to talk to her about the quincy/rick situation, get some advice. I think about all i wish i could have told her: how scared I am, for one. I know that I cant though, not now. Like when Grandad died, I have to be strong, and brave, for her. It's the least I can do.

Maranda seems to have lost it. She's screaming, crying, and trying to run up onstage, but the peacekeepers won't let her. She starts yelling, kicking, and punching. Uhoh. I tell myself she'll be fine, but I know she won't be, not if she keeps on panicking. I tell her to calm down. To Relax, and that I'm fine. She looks up at me and backs off, whispering please come back, and runs away, back to my family.

My dad looks heartbroken. I've always been his little girl, his princess, and now I'm going away to the hunger games. I want to run into his arms and sob, but I can't. We lock glances. With my eyes, I tell him I love him, and I promise to come back. He tells me he loves me, that I'll always be his princess, and to please come back.

With all this stress and pressure, I feel lightheaded. I pass out. The last thing I remember is tom, asking me if I'm ok, then nothing


	2. goodbyes and cries

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**okay so just so you know, I own no rights to the hunger games, or anything like that.**

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

I woke up in bed, at my home in victor's village, surrounded by my mom, dad, a doctor, Maranda, Tom, Quincy, and Rick. "What happened?" I asked, to no one in particular. "Well, you got chosen for the hunger games, freaked out, and then passed out," replied Tom, "almost as funny as the time you ripstikked straight into a pole." Everyone laughs, me included. It was last summer, we were riding our ripstiks (a 2-wheeled contraption that allows the rider to surf without leaving the street), and I smashed into a pole and passed out. I look up at Tom. He's a short-ish guy, with brown-blonde hair and blue eyes. Eyes that all of my friends fawn over, but I don't, probably because I always see mischief in those eyes. He's smiling with the same smile as when we were little: cocky, but not obnoxious. Just right. Don't get me wrong, I don't love him or anything. He's just a best friend that's always there for me, like a brother.

I turn to the doctor. "Caroline Jeans?" Ugh. He did NOT just call me that. "I respond to Caro, for your information," I reply irritably. "Okay, well if she can use those long words, I think she's probably alright," the doctor says. Of course I'm alright. Stupid doctor. I examine everyone else. My mom, obviously pretty for her age, with the brown-blonde hair that's typical for district 4, blue eyes, and freckles. She's tall, slender, and looks exhausted and worried. Well no duh, I've been out cold for what seems to be a few hours, and I'm going to the hunger games, probably to die. Great.

I look at rick. I need eye candy, and got it. He's tall, tan, and muscley, oh so muscley. He has brown hair, and hazel eyes, and a little boy smile. He's so hot. I wish he knew me more than that girl that keeps running into things. He meets my gaze, so I quickly turn to quincy to avoid being caught staring.

Quincy's sweet. He's tall, has blonde hair, and blue eyes. They're a light blue, with occasional lighter blue, making them look like the sky, with the occasional cloud. He has fair skin, and a scar on his right cheek. I never asked what happened. I guess now I'll never know. He smiles at me and blushes slightly.

Sensing his discomfort, I turn to Maranda, who looks like my mom, but with no freckles. She smiles at me. I smile back, and feel someone grab my hand, and squeeze.

It's my daddy. He looks like me, but with black hair. He has the same ever-changing eyes as me. One day, our eyes are brown, and they're green the next. His eyes, now chocolate brown, are sad. I reach up and hug him. My daddy. Not too tall, but not tiny, either. Built strong, like me. He's always been their for me. "Je taime, princesse," he whispers, in french, the language of the country that his parents come from. Apparently there, everyone has dark hair, and color-changing eyes, and isn't all that tall but here, we're different, daddy and I, but the same. "Je taime plus, papa," I say, crying on my daddy's shoulder, "and I'm coming back for you, I promise." The saddest thing is that I know my chances of coming back are lower than ever. I don't know what's going to be worse: dying or watching Rick, Quincy, and Tom die.

After an hour of questioning from that damned doctor, I'm finally deemed alright. "Well, you pinheaded walrus, its not like I fell off the justice building, straight into shark-infested water," I felt like saying, but I give him a death glare instead because maybe if I insult him, he'll keep me here longer.

Finally free, I go to the place where I know I'll find my friends: the beach. More specifically, the pool. It used to be a cave, but the top collapsed years ago, so now it's a rectangular area, sheltered from waves by the cave walls, and warmed by the sun. Rick and Quincy are already there.

I sit on the edge of a wall for a while, letting my feet dangle, 10 feet over the warm, clear water. Tom comes after a few minutes and sits next to me. I was about to start crying, when he pushes me into the pool. Nice. I quickly switch from bellyflop position into dive position, and land smoothly in the water. probably to Tom's great disappointment.

When I surface victoriously, I feel eyes on me. Then I remember. Oh yeah, my dives are amazing. I quickly swim away, in Rick and Quincy's direction, and, ignoring their open-mouthed gawking, swim towards the cove.

The cove's my place. It starts with a narrow underwater cave that leads to the cove itself, which is the inside of an island, that turns out to be hollow. It's roof is full of gopher holes that fell through (those poor gophers), and a few holes where people fell through (haha). The sun shines through these holes, and bounces off the water, making the whole cove a calm, serene, blue escape from the world. The fact that the island is thought to be cursed because of mysterious disappearances (all caused by people falling through), and the bodies turning up days later in the ocean (caused by the poor soul making a wrong turn in the underwater tunnel, and drowning, then being carried out to sea), helps too.

This is why I screamed so loud when Rick suddenly emerged, gasping for air, from the pool of water in the center of the place. Apparently, he saw me dive, then I disappeared into the wall, so he followed me. I really should be more careful next time, but he's already here, and it'd be useless to go now and leave him here, or anything serious like that, so I help him out of the pool, and try to explain the reason as to why I'm in a cave. This may take a while, but at least he might now I exist now...


	3. the train

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

okay so just so you know, I own no rights to the hunger games, or anything like that.

* * *

><p>After an hour in the cove explaining how I found it to Rick, then crying about being reaped, an alarm rang, signaling that the tributes had 20 minutes to report to the justice building. I wanted to live here some day, make some sort if breathing device to help friends get here too. I guess now, that'll never happen. Life sucks sometimes, doesn't it? I reluctantly led rick back through the tunnels and back to the pool. Quincy looked at us like he saw a ghost. Well I guess I would too if 2 people disappeared, and then I saw them swim straight out of a wall! I wish I could explain, maybe even bring him to the cove someday. I know he'd appreciate the blue glow, the way you can hear crickets, the waves outside, the birds singing... I'm gonna miss this place. I even promised Tom we'd go next weekend, to avoid watching kids kill each other. Well, I know THAT's not happening.<p>

An hour later, I was in the justice building, about to board the train. I give my sister my locket, which has a picture of me when I was younger, a picture of Grandad, and pictures of the rest of my family, in a mini-collage in the small pendant. She tearfully accepts it. I pass Giggles, my hedgehog that has grown to become my daughter, to my cousin, Jamie. I know she'll take good care of her. Sensing what's happening, Giggles rolls into a ball and hisses, but my tears make her unroll immediately and I give her one last hug, and a kiss on her tiny forehead, before passing her to Jamie. Giggles starts to squeak as if to say, "what's happening?" "Go with Jamie, she's your mommy now. At least until I come back. I love you, and I'll never forget you, girly," I say, crying. She extends her furry face towards me, sniffing the air, as if to say, "ok. I love you too." I turn to my mom. She tells me, "just don't trust anyone in there, unless the people you've known for years, and never let your guard down, and don't risk it in the bloodbath unless you know you have a clear shot at something, and-" she chokes a bit, and starts to cry. "Just... Come back. Please!" I give her a big hug and hand her Grandad's paintbrush. It was supposed to be moved to the hospital with everything else, but I kept it. Until now. "Here. Take this. It was Grandad's. It'll be a good thing to remember us by." She just takes it and nods. I turn to my daddy. He takes me into a big hug, and tells me, "just come back from there, ok? You'll have a nice, big feast waiting. I know you can do it. You can do anything, si tu veut, princesse. Je taime." I nod, and give him my jewlery hanger. I made it myself a few months back, out of a coathanger and some wire. Daddy was so proud of me. I thought this would be a good thing for him to remember me by.

After an hour or so of goodbyes, I get on the train, then I run straight to my room, and I'm weeping before my door closes. I hear a door open, and I feel a hand on my shoulder. It's Rick. He sits beside me. "you OK?" He asks. I turn to him, revealing my tear-stained, puffy face. "do I look ok to you?" He realizes what he did wrong. "look I'm sorry, I'm not good at this," he says. As if you could be good at comforting someone on a train ride for death. "It's ok. At least you're trying," I say. "Unlike some people." I fell asleep to him telling me I'll be alright, and that tomorrow's another day.

The next morning, I woke up happy. He came to my room! He sat with me! And he didnt have to. He decided he wanted to know I was ok. He finally knows I exist! (:D) After a (private) happy-dance, I walked down the hall, and into the breakfast car.

The first thing I noticed was Quincy's absence. Rick's sitting next to me didn't even catch my attention. All I noticed was Quincy's empty chair, in the corner by the window, where he sat for supper, apparently. Not that I would know for sure, I was too busy crying in my room. I had to go find him.

i finally found him in the last car of the train, on the balcony, watching as home gets farther and farther away. I sit beside him. He doesn't seem to notice. "Hey, you ok?" I ask. He finally speaks. "I just wish it wasn't like this," he whispers. "I just wish, we didn't have to get on this train, and then go to die." He stands up, and leans against the rail. I follow suit, secretly freaking out because this balcony's a lot higher than I thought it was, and there I was, leaning against the 1-inch thick pipe-cleaner of a rail, and expecting it to hold my weight. Well it did, in the end, but that wasn't my point.

After a couple of hours of talking, consoling, and confiding, I ended up sitting back on the bench, crying on his shoulder. It felt good to have a shoulder to cry on. Especially this one...

Evidentially, we skipped breakfast. It was around lunchtime when we were both completely cried out, and I was starving. We walked to lunch together, almost unsure wether we should be holding hands or keeping our distances. We got to the dining cart before anyone else, so we sat together in the middle. Quincy already looked nervous, so far away from his corner, by the window, but he'll get used to it, I guess.

We had just gotten our food when Rick arrives, and sits on the other side of me. Soon, the moment I've been waiting for happened. Our mentor, Skylar O'dair, arrived. Apparently, he's even hotter than his dad, Finnick O'dair was. Well, he may be one delicious hunk of man, but he's at least 23, so he's too old, and I'm going to die soon, so I can forget it. He sits down across from us. "So, wheres everyone else?" He asks. "I don't know. Tom's probably in his room, crying, and the girls are probably taking their pain out on diet bars," I answer. This makes Rick and Quincy crack up. No clue why, It wasn't meant to be funny, but whatever. Tom walks in, looking quite sad, but trying to cover it up. I knew it.

"Ok, so we'll start without the other girls, then," Skylar says, after a few minutes. The look Tom gave me told me he knew it all: how hot I find Skylar, and that I've been spending quite a bit of time with Rick and Quincy lately, but they don't know of the other. Don't get me wrong, all we've done was talk, cry and hug, but still, Tom caught it in my glances from Rick to Quincy to Skylar. Uh-oh.

"So, Caroline, what are your skills?" Skylars voice saying my name brings me back to reality. "Oh, um I'm good with slingshots, bows and arrows, hand-to-hand, knives and swords, tridents, axes, swimming, climbing, fishing, edible plants, and making stuff, like nets, spears, traps... You know, that stuff." I feel people staring at me. "Whoah, Caroline, you never told me you were an assassin!" That was Tom. "Yeah, Caroline. Where'd you learn all that?" That was Rick. Quincy was just staring at me blankly. "Well, my dad taught me the slingshot stuff and making stuff part, I learned archery and climbing at a summer camp, My english teacher taught us knives, swords, axes, and tridents (dont ask), I've been doing hand-to-hand and swimming since I was 7, and my grandma taught me about edible plants. Nothing big." I try to dismiss it with a shrug, but it only makes my strong shoulders and toned arms more obvious. Damn.

"Well then. That's quite impressive." Skylar says, then he turns to Quincy. "So, Quincy, what can you do?" "Um, Im a good runner, good at swords, swimming, climbing, slingshots, net and trap making, hiding, and that stuff. Oh and I'm a black belt in karate..." He replies. Impressive for a quiet kid, no? "Good, I think I know how I can work this to our advantage with Caroline's... talents."

He turns to Rick. "So, any talents?" "Well, I can climb trees and buildings really well, I'm a good swimmer, and fast runner, and ok at hand-to hand, no training though." He glances sideways at Quincy, who just looked down and blushed. After an awkward few seconds, Skylar spoke.

"Alrighty, then. Looks like we have a strong trio here. Now, for the next few days, I'll be testing you, if you don't mind, so be prepared for me randomly asking you to try and punch me," he glances at Quincy, "or to see your nails," sideways glance at me, more specifically, my beautifully manicured, (very) long, nails, "or if I randomly tell you to run to the caboose and back," quick glance at Rick. "Don't think I'm crazy. I'm just testing you to create a strategy. Ok? Ok." with that, we left. No one even mentioned the other girls.

That night, I was visited by Rick, who said he wanted to discuss strategy, but we ended talking about everyone we're leaving behind at home. He shared my remorse when he heard about Tom being like my brother, and he told me about Lauren, who's his best female friend, and who turns out to be the short, blonde girl that also got reaped. The taller brunette one's named Elli. Laurence and Elli are best friends, apparently. Ouch. I fell asleep with him still sitting on the edge of my bed.

When I woke up, Rick was gone, it was midnight, and I knew I wasn't getting any more sleep, so I walked down the hall in my thin pink silk nightie, and found Quincy in the caboose. "Hey," I say. He turns, almost as if he was expecting me. "Hey," he says, then nothing. "Ya know, people usually come here when you can actually see something..." Then I look around. Wow. Quincy chuckles a bit. "Does this not qualify as something?" He gestures towards s shooting star, it's pink, and green lights in the sky. All I could say was wow. "That star, right there, the pink one, it comes every 67 days, the same time as the northern lights, thats the green lights, but nobody's ever named it, so when, or if, I come back, I'll name it, but I just don't know what to name it." He sighs, and notices my thin, pink silk nightie. "Aren't you cold?" I realize that I have goosebumps. "Yeah. Actually, I'm freezing. Maybe I should go get a sweater..." I didn't want to go, but I was so cold. "Do you have to?" Quincy surprised me. He's not usually that brave. "I mean, you can have my jacket, and the sleeping cars are far..." He took off his jacket, orange and brown striped knit, and draped it over my shoulders. It was really warm. Knowing him, I expected him to go back to standing a foot away, but instead, he stayed close. It was nice, so I leaned in a bit, resting my head on his shoulder. The shoulder I cried on this morning. I feel strange inside, like bubbly. I'm nervous, but happy, and excited to see what's going to happen next. I think I might be in love, but I'm scared about the hinger games, and making any connections. He puts his arm around my waist. The feeling intensifies. "You know, I think I just might name it the Caroline star, after you. You know, because you're both pretty in pink, aren't noticed by everyone, because you always seem to be in someone's shadow, but when you do see you, you can't look away." I can't believe he said that. I'm so happy, because he feels the same way, but so sad, because we're both probably going to die. "Quincy..." He immediately thinks I took it the wrong way. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have put you on the spot like that..." "Don't be. You said how you felt, and now I'm gonna say how I feel, ok?" He looks reassured, but nervous. "Ok." "Wow, I don't know how to say this, but I've had a huge crush on you for the last 3 months..." He looks surprised. "What about Rick?" He asks. "Ricks just a cocky, pretty face. You're really sweet, cute, shy... Just you, ya know?" I say. "Yeah. I know," he says, smiling.


	4. dreamland

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

okay so just so you know, I own no rights to the hunger games, or anything like that.

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><p>When I woke up, I thought it was all a dream; the balcony, the star (my star), the lights, Quincy, the hunger games, the train, Rick... For a second, just a second, I thought that I dreamed all this up, and today was the reaping day. Then I noticed the train's movement, Quincy's sweater still on me, his scent still in the fabric, like citrus and mint, all at the same time. Then I remember: if this is real, then the hunger games are real too. I'm really going to die, unless I kill 71 other kids, some 12 years old, some my friends. Tom... I have to kill Tom or die myself. That's when it hit me. Quincy'll have to die too if I'm gonna live. I can't kill him, I love him. This brings on an new round of tears. That's when the door opens, and Rick walks in. "I heard crying. What's wrong?" He says, then he notices the sweater, that's now in my hands, my face buried in it. "So, you and Quincy, huh?" I look up at him, tearfully, and I see a friend. A (very) good-looking friend, but still just a friend, so I tell him. "Yeah. I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, so I went to the balcony in the caboose, and he was there..." Rick seemed more interested. "Oh really? And are you gonna tell me how you ended up swapping clothes?" He asks, laughing and grabbing Quincy's sweater. Rick really makes me laugh sometimes. "We didn't swap clothes! Jeez. I was just cold in my pj's, so-" "You had a little cuddle on the bench, for body heat?" Rick's full-out belly laughing now. "NO. Wow who do you think I am? He just gave me his sweater, and that was it. Ok?" Rick looked a bit disappointed. "You sure?" "Of course I'm sure!" He was tossing the sweater back when the door opened a second time. It was Quincy in the doorway. "Hey I heard noises, you ok? Oh, Ricks here. Sorry I didn't see you." He looked troubled, like something was wrong. Well I would too, I guess, if i walked into my girlfriend's room and fund her talking to an other guy that you knew she liked... I'll talk to him later about it. "Yeah. Rick heard crying so he came in, and I was just explaining as to why I have your sweater..." I say, truthfully. He looked relieved. "Okay, well I was just wondering if you'd like to go to breakfast with me." Rick jumps in, "well you know I'd love to, but I'm not very hungry at 7:00 am, so I'll leave you two lovers alone," and with that, he left, chuckling.<p>

"So what was that about?" Quincy asks, on the way to breakfast. Well, I knew I'd have to tell him eventually. "Well, I woke up, remembered I was on a train to doom, and cried, Rick heard sobbing, so he came in, and noticed that I had your sweater, and asked about it, so I told him, briefly, how I ended up with your sweater in my room. This made Quincy smile. "Wow, so that's it?" "Yup" I laughed a bit. "That's it." We walked into the dining car, hand in hand. It felt like everyone was staring at us. Well, I guess they were. I felt Quincy tense up beside me.

We sit in the middle of the table, like yesterday, and are soon joined by Skylar. "Hey, you two!" How did he know? "Hey Skylar," we say together. "So can either of you guess where we are?" Asks Skylar. "Um..." I have no clue, so I turn to Quincy. Apparently getting the message, he says, "the Capitol?" A huge grin comes across Sklyar's face. "Yes! Now, you guys were gone when we watched the reapings from the other districts, so you're gonna watch the recap now, ok?" "Ok, but can I go get Tom first? He missed them too, remember? He was crying in his room" I say, laughing.

I find Tom in the solarium, which is a glass room that sticks up through the top of the train. It has smooth floors and a lot of empty space, perfect for ripstikking. He was in the middle of a wheelie when I stuck my head through the trapdoor in the smooth floor. He swerved and narrowly missed my head, making me scream and fall off the ladder, and the force from the turn made him fly off his ripstik, so we both ended up landing at the same time, me butt-first on a comfy couch, and him face-first on the concrete floor. Ouch.

So anyway we were in the hall, when Tom brought Quincy up. "So... You and Brad #2, huh?" Oh why did he bring Brad up? You see, Brad was my best childhood friend, till his dad's boat exploded, so he and his mom moved to district 7 when we were 12, and I haven't seen him since. It's been 2 years, but I still remember our last conversation. He told me he loved me, and I just said "Oh, ok" I never told him that I loved him back. More specifically, we were saying goodbye, and he hugged me and told me he loved me, and I just froze. Why, oh why didn't I say something... Anything? So when I met Quincy, he seemed familliar, but I didn't know why, then I remembered Brad, and how Quincy has almost the same eyes as him, almost the same fair skin, almost the same blonde hair, almost the same cute shyness... So Tom calls him Brad #2. "Yo? Caroline?" Tom's voice brought me back. "Oh um yeah, me and Quincy are together, why?" I say. "Well, you know, I thought you liked Brad..." He looked confused. "Tommy, you and I both know we're never seeing him again, and, either way, Quincy's not lie Brad. He's more my type. He's taller, smarter, cooler... Not Brad at all" I explain, but I can't. Basically, Brad is the past. Like a brother. Fuzzy memories or cinnamon buns, a trampoline, forts... Brad's my childhood. The only thing's I'm not a child. I've changed so much over the past 2 years, I'm not the same person.

When we got to the dining car, Skylar was fast-forwarding past district 4. I just sat down next to Quincy when Skylar pressed play. The reapings were a lot like any other year. Some noticable ones were 3 girls from 2 that were all reaped, clinging to each other: The oldest one was name Abby, she was tall and skinny, with curley hair. The next one, Anna, was about my height, a little heavier, and had long, dark hair. The last one was kelly. She was, in a few words, small and vicious. She was tan, and had a ton of brown hair. These three looked like good allies. Skylar wrote their names in a notepad. Then there was a hunk of a man in 3, named Rel. He was definitely a prospective ally... My heart broke when a chubby 12-year-old named Eric got reaped, but the biggest shock of all was Brad. Yes, Brad, from district 7, my childhood friend, got reaped. I turned white. Quincy asked me if I was ok. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just... I know that kid." Quincy looked confused. "How? He's in 7." So I explained how he was my best friend, and his dad died, and he moved away. I just left out the love part. Quincy jumps up. "Hey, do you know what this means?" I don't. "This means that Brad's on this train!" He almost screamed with excitement. "Oh." I haven't thought of that. Tom's vainly containing his laughter. "Hey Skylar, do you think we can go talk to a few tributes? You know, making allies..." Tom looked like he had an evil plan. Uh oh.

We got to the middle part of the train: district 7 territory. Right away, a blonde guy, my height, slightly pale, with piercing blue eyes, comes. Brad. He hasn't changed a bit, but apparently I did, because he didn't recognize me. That hurt like a pole to the face, full speed on a ripstik. "Hey! This is district 7 territory. Go back to district 4," he said. That was it. I couldn't hold back, so I let go of Quincy's hand, stepped forward, and said, "Hey, Brad. remember me? Oh and for your information, we're not lost, we were sent here by Skylar O'daire, to make alliances." We weren't, of course. He freaked out at the very idea or us exploring, but we "misunderstood." After a minute of staring blankly at me, Brad turned white. "Caroline?" He looked lost, trying to find familiarity in my face. I just smile, the same annoyingly crooked smile as always. "Better believe it." He looks at me again. "Whoa, you've changed." Well, that's true. I've gotten taller, thinner, lost my baby face, my body's more toned, my hair's lighter, and I'm a bit paler. "Yeah. Well you haven't. You still look like that little kid that got stuck on the wall." I turn to Quincy and Tom to tell the story of the wall "A few years back, I convinced Brad to climb up on the wall, you know, the only wall left from the old justice building? It's full of little crags and hollows that make climbing easy, and it's surrounded by water 30 feet deep, so it's not like it's dangerous or anything. Oh and did I mention it's 5 meters high? Anyway, long story short, Brad climbed it, got scared, and started bawling." Everyone laughs, except Brad, who turned beet red. "Okay, well I'll join your alliance, just as long as no one mentions any funny little stories about me from 5 years ago, ok?" We all agree.

We met Anna, Abby and Kelly a few minutes later. We got along right away. Rel also reacted nicely to our plan. We now have an alliance of 9. All we had to do was keep it from Skylar 'till training, and our master plan will have succeeded.

We got into the training building that afternoon. I also got to meet my prep team.

There were 4 of them. Their names were Constantina (makeup), Jessica (hair), Corrina (wardrobe), and melina (nails, acessories, and other details). I also had an avox girl named Crissa, who did waxing and brows.

They all looked normal, if you consider sculpted nails, gold tattoos in your skin, diamonds and rubies in your teeth, skin and eyes, and bows and hearts on your eyelashes... My stylist, Clary, however, looked half normal. She was tall, thin, had brown hair, green-brown eyes, and slightly tanned eyes. In short, she almost looked like an older me, but with intricate gold tattoos that just barely show on her tanned skin. Creepy.

"Oh my gosh! You are so gorgeous in person!" Clary gave me a big hug. "I have so many ideas... Come with me." She led me into a huge room. Clary gave me the grand tour; the drawing area, complete with a drawing table, light, and every kind of drawing material you can think of, the sewing area, with mannequins dressed in the prettiest and strangest outfits of life, a sewing table, a rack with about a roll of every kind of fabric you can think of in every color and design that exists, and a small chest of drawers. Then there's the kitchen, where the fridge is hidden under sketches of outfit designs, the sleeping area, with a huge, ornate bed, a T.V area, complete with a large, plush couch and a huge TV, which playing project runway at the moment, and finally a door marked "_little stylist's room." _Oh and did i mention that all the walls and ceilings were plastered with sketches of outfit possibilities and quite a few snapshots of me from various angles? "So, this is what a stylist's room looks like. Nice." More like huh. Than nice, but whatever.

I was then led into a large room, featuring a manicure/pedicure station, shelf upon shelf of nail polish and makeup, a tattoo gun, bottles of liquid gold, jars of gems of various sizes and colors, a hair station featuring scissors of all kinds, dyes in every color, a hairdryer, straightener, curler, crimper, waver, rollers, and clips. In a corner, I saw a sauna, tub, shower, and cold pool. There was also a massage table with a magnifying lense over it, and a huge chest of drawers with one of those rolly ladders you find at libraries attached to it, and a row of hooks with various scrubbers hanging from them. I immediately knew this would be my makeover room.

"Okay, so I'll be back, but in the meantime, the prep team's gonna come and do the basics, so wait here, kay, Caro?" She called me Caro without me asking, so I officially deemed her a non-creep. "Okay, Clay," I say, making up a new nickname for her, "it's your new name," I explained. Clary left, laughing.

And now, I wait.

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><p><strong>AUTHOR'S NOTE:<strong>

OOH! what's this?

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lol anywayyy REVIEW!


	5. secrets

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

okay so just so you know, I own no rights to the hunger games, or anything like that.

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><p>My prep team came in in a flurry of gold, pink, diamonds, and black, and then Crissa walked in, silently. Constantina, who was sporting golden tattoos all over her body, started jumping up and down with excitement at the sight of my tanned, flawless skin. "O-M-freakin freakin G! your skin is gorgeous! I have soooooo many plans for this skin... I mean, look at this!" everyone started screaming and laughing. I love my prep team.<p>

Jessica had a treble clef tattooed in gold behind her ear, love written in rubies in her left wrist, and a diamonds implanted around her irises. It's beautiful in a weird way, I guess I'll get used to it. She led me to the hair station and started stroking my hair, stopping an inch from the end, "this is where the good stuff ends and the damage starts," and before i could even blink, her scissors flashed, chopping off the bottom inch of my hair, all at once. Then, in a flurry of flashing scissor blades, brushes, pins, clips, elastics, gel, some strange water mist spray thingy, spray shampoo, more mist, some vacuum, and some sticky spray, she had my hair washed, rinsed, dried, cut into a V, starting at 1 1/2-inch side bangs, arriving at an inch below shoulder length on the sides, and halfway down my back at the very back, ending in a perfectly even V. She also styled it. My bangs were volume-ey: not wavy, not straight, and the rest of my hair was like soft, rippling waves, exactly like water. I loved it. She explained how she cut it, and why, then said, "so this is the basic cut, don't worry, its actually impossible to mess your up. Your hair structure was actually temporarily changed, because that sticky stuff, remember? It coated each hair separately so it always goes back to this, unless i spray it with this mist, then it goes back to normal, understand?" I understood. It's supposed to be impossible to mess up my hair, meaning it'll be messed up by breakfast tomorrow. Great.

My prep team played barbie doll with me all day, and by nightfall, I was exhausted, so I went to the roof, and found a gorgeous garden, and an even more gorgeous Quincy in it. Like me, he still had his hair, skin, and clothes still all done up. His hair was cut shorter, making a perfect blonde halo around his head, his skin was wiped clear of any scars or blemishes, and he had a blue shirt that made his sky blue eyes look even deeper, changing from pale sky blue to a deeper, clearer blue, almost like water. He was just standing there, a few inches taller than me, and... perfect. I wanted to run into his arms, and stay there forever. His shirt sleeves were just high enough to show his biceps, and he had a weird kinda highlight thing on his jawline, making it even more prominent. He looked strong, safe, beautiful, and perfect.

He finally turns to me. "Wow!" That's all he said, and yet it says so much. I look down at myself. I have gold and black eyeliner, very sheer rosy blush, and deep pink lipgloss. Im wearing a royal blue top, that's loose around my body, but still hugs my curves. Im also wearing very snug black jeans that make my legs (and my butt ^.^) look awesome. I'm wearing 3-inch wedge-type heels, with black braided leather bands securing my foot to the shoe, and straw around the wedge. they made me an inch shorter than him. My shirt was only on my right shoulder, showing a gold tattoo on my left shoulder of a heart with a halo, devil horns, and a devil tail. Beside it was the words evil love. It went perfectly with my gold tattoo on my ankle of an angel with a halo, devil horns and pointed wings. It has Hell's angel written under. Tom has the same one. We actually gave them to each other. Yes, that means I trusted Tom with my ankle. Not the smartest thing I've ever done, but it turned out well.

I look into Quincy's perfect eyes. "Speak for yourself! You look great! What did they do?" I ask. Quincy laughs. I love his laugh."I honestly don't know. I fell asleep during the anti-scar thing." Oh yeah. The dermabrasion WAS quite relaxing... "Yeah me too, but they woke me up after. I guess they thought you might not be thrilled with the whole hair, makeup, clothes, skin, minor surgery, and everything else..." This made Quincy's eyes widen. "Minor surgery? What?" Quincy makes me laugh sometimes. "Yeah. Like they gave me this," I say, showing him the love tattoo. Then, I notice a tattoo on his ankle. It says evil love, the first E has a halo, the O has devil horns, and the L curls under the word love, and around his ankle, ending in a point, making a devil tail. It matches mine perfectly. "And they gave you that," I say, showing him the design, "see? We match!" This makes Quincy smile.

"Cool! Hey, what's this?" Oh shmidt. (my word, don't judge) He saw my ankle tattoo. The one that matches Tom's. Well I guess I'd have to tell him eventually anyway, so I try to make it look like nothing. "Oh this little thing? Its nothing! just a..." Quincy interrupts. "A what? Because whatever it is, it's something, otherwise Tom wouldn"t have THE SAME ONE!" He almost yelled those last three words. I've never seen him mad, 'till now, but it hurt. No clue why, but it did. Well at least he's not one of those guys that would turn all that hot martial arts training on me, right? "I can explain," I start, but he cuts me off. "You'd better be able to explain! I threw myself out there, told you everything, and I thought you did the same, but that-" he points to my ankle "says you kept a hell of a lot from me." He switched from mad to sad. "It-it's just-you-you're the first person that I've felt like I can trust since I got here, and apparently that means nothing to you!" Since he got here? What? "What do you mean, since you got here?" He sighs "Well I guess I'll have to tell you eventually, might as well tell you now. I... may have not told you something..."Okay, now I'm curious. What has he been keeping from me? "I'm listening. What is it?" He looks really nervous. Has he committed murder or something? "Well... I never told you this, but... I'm not from here. Panem, I mean. I'm from Europe. Well, France actually. It's this other continent, that's what we call them over there. Anyway, we started getting threats from someone that called himself Ice. Said that if we stay in France, we'll be bombed into oblivion, so mom did some research, and found out about some girl from Panem, Catnip Evergreen. She was proof that there was in fact an other continent out there. Apparently she almost overthrew the capitol, and they treat people better now, so we got on a boat, found a french guy with a british wife, and two girls. One was my age, the other was a bit older. They was as desperate as us to go somewhere else, and left the next morning. When we got here, we found out that this Ice guy was just bluffing, but it was too late. There," he said with a sigh. "Now you know everything."


	6. Gym

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

okay so just so you know, I own no rights to the hunger games, or anything like that.

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><p>Opening ceremonies were the next day, so, needless to say, that night, I couldn't sleep. The same words kept running through my head. <em>Now you know everything. What is that? I trust you... <em>I felt so bad that Quincy told me legitimately everything, and yet I kept so much from him. I sat up in bed, abandoning my hopeless effort to get some sleep, and tiptoed into the hall. I need to clear my mind. I quickly find the door I was looking for. It had GYM written in gold letters on it. Strange, the light's on, but it's past midnight, meaning it should be closed by now. Huh. I decide to play ninja and peek around the door. I'm really surprised to find Quincy in there, sitting on the edge of a 5-meter platform, over a deep pool. He was looking into the water, far below. He was wearing his bathing suit, and was still dripping. My guess is he went for a swim, then got tired and decided to sit, but why the 5-meter? I guess Quincy'll never cease to confuse me. Ah well. He looks like he needs some space, so I decide to see many laps I can swim before I pass out. I'm at about 80, when I dive down to the bottom of the pool, and feel someone land beside me in the water. It's Quincy. He grins at me underwater. This forces us to surface in a flurry of bubbles and laughter. We go up to the 5 meter platform to talk. "So, how the hell did you get in here?" I ask. Of course the locks easy enough to pick: just grab a few bobby pins, a magnet, and a couple batteries, bend 2 bobby pins into a complicated square spiral, and use the magnet and batteries to electro-magnetize it. Then all you have to do is hold that to the side of the lock to disable the burglar alarm, and turn the right tumbler from the inside with a 3rd pin, and your in, but getting the power on without setting off some alarm's a whole other story. "That was easy! I just made a generator, and plugged everything into that. Oh, and I have magnets stuck to all the fuse boxes to override the alarms that were built in." I was in awe. "Wow. I never thought about making a new power source!" Im beginning to love this guy more and more. "So um about that tattoo... the hells angel one..." oh my gosh that sounded lame. Ah well, I could have said worse. Before I can continue, he cuts me off. "It's ok. I shouldn't have said anything..." Woah. I already decided I was gonna say it, so I'm saying it. "No, you should have, so I'm telling you. Listen, before I say anything, you need to know. Me and Tom are best friends, almost siblings, and thats all we'll ever be. Understand?" He nodded, so I continued. "Good. Now this tattoo, happened a little wile ago. Ok? We gave each other these tattoos to prove a point. So anyway the point of this," I pointed to my ankle, "was to prove a point to our parents, and that point was that nobody can tell us what to do, and we're almost like your regular little angels, but were not. We're angels from hell, and we'll do whatever we want and you cant stop us or change us. And we most definately won't suck up. Get it? It doesn't symbolize any love, or anything like that. Ok?" He looked relieved. "So that's it?" I smile supportively. "Yep. That's it.

I spent the next 10 minutes watching Quincy jump off the platform, and standing with my back pressed to the wall, and shaking. Needless to say, I'm terrified of heights. "You still haven't jumped yet?" Quincy looks like a little kid, flushed and grinning. "Yeah... no. I'm terrified of heights." I take one step towards the edge, then run back. "Ok, well just close your eyes and run!" He shows an example by sprinting off the platform, still running in midair as he falls. A few seconds later, he was back up here, grinning. "Aren't you gonna go?" He asks, daring me to jump off of the platform into a pit of dispaire and doom... ok maybe I'm exaggerating a teensy weensy bit, but from this height, its a fluke Quincy survived the fall! "No, really I'm ok." I say, inching myself away from the wall, gaining confidence. "Okay. I'll go, but not alone." I shocked myself by saying this. Quincy looked shocked too. "Okay, on the count of 3. 3!" Quincy started running, and I was surprised to watch my own legs carrying me towards the side, but I wasn't scared. I was more confused about what happened to 1 and 2. I turn to Quincy running by my side, and knew I'll be ok. We run out of platform all too soon, and I find myself falling, hear myself screaming, feel my heart trying to pound its way out of my chest, I see Quincy falling a little bit ahead of me, grinning like a 5-year old. I look down just in time to see the water rush up and swallow me. I surface almost instantly. "That was so fun!" I say, flushed and grinning, like Quincy. No wonder he loves this stuff so much, it's awesome!

I went to bed after about a half hour of throwing myself off of a 5-meter platform in various ways, directions and positions, oh and pushing quincy off a few times too (that was fun). The next morning around 10, I heard quincy moving around in the room next to mine. I was up, get dressed, and knocking on his door within 5 minutes. I hear a voice coming from behind the door. "Come in" Quincy's wearing loose (not baggy) jeans, and was leaning over a drawer, apparently looking for a shirt. "Hey," I say, "watcha looking for?" He turns. Wow. Someone's been working out. I guess I was so busy freaking out yesterday to notice... Well, whatever the case, I must have been staring, because he just smiled and said, "You like?" this makes me blush. "Yeah! I mean of course. When did this happen?" Seriously, this guy looks AMAZING. "Oh well Rick kinda heard wind that you liked... more built people, and a little more muscle and a few more abs wont hurt for the games, and I kinda like this look, and you obviously do, so I didn't see any reason why not... Wait, you DO like it, right?" He looked just about ready to remove all of his new, hot muscles, if that was even possible, which it probably is... I need to reassure him. "Of course I like it! And you're right. That extra strength will help in the arena, and the new look's probably going to win us sponsors, too! And I just might, maybe, perhaps, a little bit like a guy with muscles..." Ok a lot! I'm exactly like every other teenage girl: I've always dreamt of being held in a guys strong arms, and being swept away. A guy with abs, biceps... the works, you know? A sweet guy that would never hurt me, despite his strength. A guy like Quincy.

I spend the next few minutes doing just that. Well, not ALL that, in case you were wondering, just in his arms, no action. Sorry. Then, the breakfast bell rang, ruining the mood. We walked together to the dining room. Quincy was immediately jumped by Rick, so I was left to my own devices. I find Skylar in a corner, already talking to Rick, Quincy, and Tom. Meanwhile, our stylists are discussing how they're going to coordinate our outfits, no doubt. I can't wait so see what tonight has in store. I've already asked Clay, but she won't tell me, all she said was that I'll be a bombshell...


	7. snatched

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

okay so just so you know, I own no rights to the hunger games, or anything like that.

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><p>The whole day rushed by in a whirlwind of makeup, hair, eyebrow tweezing (ouch), hair dryers hair spray, flat irons, crimpers, curlers, hair clips, elastics, nail files, buffers, polishers, nail polish, topcoats, pedicures, creams of all kinds, a billion perfumes, uncomfortable shoes, and finally, the dress. Yes, I said it. THE dress, but I'll tell you about it later. First, how it came to be.<p>

We were on our way to meet our stylists in our dressing rooms, when we hear Tom, who was slightly behind me and Quincy (Rick was leading), half gasp half scream, and when we turned around, he was gone, and a door was slamming. We all stood there, baffled and staring at each other's terrified faces for a good 10 minutes. I heard Tom's muffled voice behind the door, so at least I knew he was alive, but it sounded like he was far from the door, because his voice was a faint whisper, so faint no one else heard it. I was frantic. "Hey I hear him! TOM! TOM! CAN YOU HEAR ME?" Tom's voice got louder. It was still really faint, but not faint enough for me not to hear effort in is voice, meaning whatever was happening to him in there, he was putting up a fight, and I didn't like the sound of it. "he's in trouble! Can't you hear him?" Rick was the first to respond with a resounding "NO!" I turn to Quincy. "Can't you hear ANYTHING?" Quincy look at me with his blue, blue eyes. "Well I hear SOMETHING, but it could be anyones voice, but only someone who REALLY knows his voice, and spends a helluva lotta time with him and really REALLY cares about him would know that it's him, let alone the fact that he's in trouble!" Quincy turned and slammed his fist into the wall, alarming me. I've never seen him this upset. "Why, Caro? Why didn't you just tell me you're in love with Tom?" Rick started giggling and singing "Caro and Tom sitting in a tree, K-I-" He was cut off by Quincy hitting him squarely in the chest and winding him. Rick recoiled. "What the hell, man? You know I was kidding!" Quincy's face was grim. "Well it wasn't funny!" He turned back to me, his eyes a mixture of sadness, with some anger, and even jealousy. "Why didn't you tell me?" a sentence that started as a whisper, ended in a scream. He reached for me. I thought he was going to hit me. I flinched. Rick tensed up, ready to pull him off of me and keep him back if things got out of hand. He grabbed me, literally sweeping me off of my feet. My heart rate went up. "P-please don't" I was terrified. A billion questions ran through my head. What's wrong with him? What's he going to do to me? Is he gonna hurt me? Man, I hope he doesn't. Why is he doing this? He raised his hand. Rick was just a few inches away. I clamped me eyes shut, and cringed away from him, anticipating.

I was expecting for him to slap me in the face, but instead he gently stroked my cheek. I looked at him, and realized he wasn't going to hurt me. He pushed my bangs out of my eyes, and smiled. I just realized that my eyes were wide open, making an innocent, injured, scared puppy effect. The very look that made my daddy melt every single time, for all these years. "Hey! No fair! You know I'm defenseless against those eyes." Rick relaxed. I noticed he had a sizable rock in his hand. The volcanic rock I had hidden in the tunnel to my cove. It had a crack in it, shaped like a perfect R. The rock itself was in the shape of a heart. His district token. Would he really risk breaking it, and hurting Quincy, to save ME? Huh. Quincy puts me down. "Hey, you know I'd never hurt you, right?" I didn't know what to say. "Well I don't know, you gave me a helluva scare right now!" I pushed him away from me. He looked defeated. "Look, you can tell me, I understand." Oh jeez. What am I supposed to say? Of course I love Tom, but not THAT way! He's my best friend, the one person that would never judge me, and never hurt me. He's always there for me, and I trust him more than anyone. He's like my brother the universe forgot to give me, and ether way, he's NOT my type anyway. "Okay, look. Tom's my friend. JUST my friend. I care about him, but not THAT way! He's like my brother, and anyway, he is definitely not my type, ok? I'm not in love with him, I never really was, we don't have some sort of weird history, or anything like that. We're just two really good friends that have been friends for a long time. Like I don't get it! No one would be like this if my best friend was a girl!" This seemed to be news to them. Quincy just blinked. Rick just said "Okay...?" Quincy finally spoke. "Look I get it. I just thought... Nevermind. Now, lets get Tom, and get outta here, ok?" "Ok" We all turn back to the door that Tom was dragged through.

Quincy was trying the (locked) door handle, when we hear Rick scream, "hey!" We turned back around, and he was gone. That was the moment when we realized we were truly alone in the hallway, Quincy and I, and this hallway wasn't a normal hallway. What we thought was walls, was actually doors. Hundreds of them, all smoothly flushed with the rest, some with doorknobs, others with little handles dug into the door. Strange. Even more strange, they were all white, and had little labels on them, written in a beige-cream color. It was almost as if they weren't meant to be seen. Suddenly, a door opened, and we were both pushed through a doorway and tumbled down a ramp, landing in a cold, damp, dark cell. It had wooden floors, and stone walls. We were probably deep underground. There were small holes in the walls here, too. They were the size of tennis balls, and they seemed to connect our cell with about 70 others or so. To one side, I heard Elli crying, and Laurence's muffled voice consoling her. Through the hole opposite, We could hear Rick swearing under his breath and pacing. Straight ahead, I heard Tom pacing and periodically stomping his foot on the wood floor. I couldn't help myself. "Tom! Over here!" Tom's face appeared in the dim light through the hole in the wall. "Caro! Quincy! You're alive! Hey the floor heres hollow. I think it's the way out!" He was about to say something else, when he was cut off by 70 voices screaming. Suddenly, the floor collapsed from under us, turning into a slide, and sending us shooting down a tunnel. We landed on a platform in a long shaft. the platform started moving uphill. Slowly at first, progressively getting faster, and faster. When is seemed it couldnt go any faster, it stopped abruptly, sending us flying through the air, and landing in a pink, flowery sponge pit, in the middle of a studio.


	8. goddess

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

okay so just so you know, I own no rights to the hunger games, or anything like that.

* * *

><p>Quincy's head surfaced after a few seconds. "Whoa! Where the hell are we?" I looked around. "Um... I don't know. Let's get out of this pool of glitter and check it out." Quincy couldn't agree more After about 20 minutes of struggling to "swim" our way out of this pool of glittery pink sponges and roses, I gave up. Our progress: 2 inches. "We're not getting anywhere! We're gonna be stuck here forever! C'est pas vrai." Quincy, who was still struggling to advance beside me, abruptly stopped. "What did you say?" He looked like I just said I could fly or something. "Uh we're not going anywhere?" He shakes his head. "No! after that. What did you say?" Ok, this guys confusing me more and more these days. "We're gonna be stuck here forever?" He sighs. "No, I heard that, what did you say AFTER that?" Ok what? "Uh... nothing?" He shakes his head again. "No, you said something, well you mumbled it. What was that?" Ooooooooh THAT! Damn I forgot he spoke french... "Oh that, um I just said c'est pas vrai, you know because its almost unreal how the hell this happened." I try to dismiss it with a shrug, but judging by the look on his face, I coulda pulled a hovercraft outta my bra, flew us out of here, morphed into a jellyfish, killed Ice (he hates jellyfish), then morphed back into a person and reversed time so the hunger games never happened, and he wouldn't be more surprised and happy. "How do you speak french?" He's not gonna drop it is he? Fine. I'll tell him. "Oh, well my dad's french, so I learned french and english kinda at the same time." I shrug. "Nothing special" He looks at me, wide eyed. "Wait... You're FRENCH? And you didn't bother to tell me?" damn. "I don't know! But now you know. Happy?" Did I even have to ask? "Of course I'm happy! This is the best thing i could ever wish for!" Ummmm ok? "What, a girlfriend that speaks french?" I seemed to miss the point. "Not JUST that, first of all, my mom won't be disappointed in me for dating an american, I'm finally not the only french in the continent, AND it gives us the best edge in the arena because no one else speaks french, so it'll be our code. All we have to do is teach a few key words to our allies and we're set!" O.M.G! this kids a genius! "Yeah! and we can speak fast french if we don't want the capitol understanding our every word!" Fast french, by the way's french, but spoken really quickly, full of slang, and with 3 or 4 words jammed into one, making it impossible for anyone to understand unless they're completely fluent in french, and even then it's extremely difficult.<p>

After like 20 minutes of french chatter, mainly consisting of plans for the arena, we figured out that if we were to kinda lie down on the surface of the sponges, we can sorta crawl/slither our way out of the pool. So there we were, in a large, pink, glittery studio of sorts with a drawing table in the middle and hundreds of sketches of me and quincy, just me, just Quincy, Tom, Rick, Laurence, and Elli, in various poses, outfits, and surroundings. Quincy was in awe. "Whoa." I agree. We find 6 doors in the room, each with a name written on it in gold. Quincy and I decide to opt for the room marked "CLAY."

To my great surprise, we find Clay's studio on the other side of the door. It was just the same as the other day, but this time there was probably an other 20 outfits on the mannequins. Clay suddenly emerges from behind the gorgeous blue and white corset-style dress that I was looking at, making me jump about 5 feet, screaming something like "Holy bejeeses!" Quincy starts cracking up "holy bejeeses? You did not seriously just say that, right?" I see clay retreat behind the dress, before laughing like there's no tomorrow. Ok. it was not that funny. "Hey! it's my word, ok? so don't judge!" Quincy nudged me. "Hey you know we're just kidding! It's a funny word!" grrrrrr "Not THAT funny!" Clay said something to Quincy and they both walked towards the back of the room. At that, I sat down, crossed my arms, and pouted. (Yes, I am aware that I'm 14, why do you ask?) Quincy finally comes back after a few minutes and offers to help me up. "C'mon, get up. Clay wants to show you something." I don't budge. "Hmmf!" Quincy sighs. "You're gonna like it..." My curiosity gets the better of me, so I take his hand. "Okay fine! This had better be good" Quincy chuckles as he helps me up. "Oh it is. Trust me."

Quincy led me to a corner that was curtained off. On one wall was a pair doors, each marked changing room. The other wall was a mirror, and there was a large pedestal in the center. I was just about to ask where he was taking me, wen I saw that Clay was sitting on one of the 5 stools facing the changing room door. I also couldn't help but to notice that the table and mannequins behind the stools were loaded with gorgeous matching outfits for Quincy and I. Clay looked up. "Oh hey guys! Omygosh Caro. You're gonna flip when you see this!" She pulls a gorgeous blue dress off the table and hands it to me. She passes something to Quincy, and instructs us to try on our outfits. I opened my door, and was surprised at the size of my changing room. It was bright pink, had a table for putting outfits and other stuff on, a bench, a stool, and an armchair, and a little stage. Oh, and one of the walls was all mirror. After talking my third tour around my room, I tried on the dress, and holy crap was it ever nice.

It was a long, flowy dress. The top was a corset, with very tight-knit gold fishing net over it. The fabric itself was scallop-cut and quite low, but the fishing net was cut higher and tied behind my neck, like a halter top. The waist was defined with a belt made of that gold fishing net, and hundreds of tiny seashells. The netting gradually became looser-knit, and the material looser from the belt to the bottom of the dress, which had tiny seashells along the bottom hem. I looked like a sea goddess. As I moved around, the fabric rippled, like the ocean. I found a button marked _chariot simulator_ and pressed it. An image appeared on the mirror. I stepped onto the stage, and it honestly looked like I was on my chariot! The chariot was made up of ice, with seashells, gold fishing net, hooks, ribbons of blue die, and what looked like powdered gold, frozen into it. The room also generated wind, and the stage moved subtly, to mimic the effect of a moving chariot. My dress rippled even more, and looked like the ocean on a stormy day, and the netting created the effect of whitecaps, because it's so sparkly. I looked like a sea goddess, out for vengeance, and I looked like I was gonna get it.

I got bored of playing model in the mirror after a few minutes and stepped out to a very excited Tyson (Quincy's stylist) and Clay. They immediately jumped on me, pinning my dress up at places, tightening the corset, and adjusting the netting. I hear a noise behind me. They suddenly look up, and their jaws drop. When I turned around, Quincy was behind me. Damn, he looked hot! His chest was bare, showing off his major abs. On his lower torso he wore a shimmery fabric that looked like a fish's scales. It was artfully cut to make it seem as though his legs were bound together, but he was still able to walk around. His hair was tousled lightly, giving it an after-swim look. In his hand he held a trident; not a dangerous one but more of a decorative prop, that had the gold fishing net wrapped around it. When I looked at Quincy, he was no longer the boy who was too shy to even make eye contact with anyone, oh no, instead, he was the very image of a ferocious, powerful merman. My ferocious, powerful merman. I couldn't contain myself. "Holy bejeeses! You look good." He grins. "Really? And look whose talking, little miss goddess over there!" He gives me a very light shove, at which point Rick and Taylor, his stylist walk in.

"Haha sea goddess and merman. I like it! It's like the goddess and her protecter." Isn't Rick hilarious? That's when I really got a good look at him. Quincy was dressed like a strong, fearless merman, where Rick, on the other hand, looked like a god. What I mean is, he was dressed for the part. His chest was also bare, but he wore a sash of the same gold netting of my dress that finished in a cape. He hardly wore anything else, except a beach towel carefully tied around his waist, so that he wasn't completely nude but still gave a certain allure, because you know that under that little towel... Anyway around his head he wore a simple crown of olive branches, the symbol of winning an ancient Game called the Olympics. Meaning that he was a hero. _Man, oh man what wouldn't I give to throw myself into his arms right now_, I think to myself. Somewhere deep inside though, I felt a twinge of guilt. Maybe I should break up with Quincy, because I can see about 8 reasons why right now, and I'm only looking at Rick's abs! I start arguing with myself in my mind... _Do it! Dump that sorry excuse for a man and go for the real hunk of a man that's standing right in front of you... Don't do it! if you do, Quincy'll be heartbroken, and you still love him, don't you? And anyway, look at him now! he's almost as muscley as Rick! and you know he wont hurt you... You'll be happier... You'll feel guilty forever!... He'll better protect you... Quincy might commit suicide because of you! _This last chilling thought made me think clearer. Yup, Rick's definitely very attractive, but I don't LOVE him. Quincy may not be as hot, but he's so sweet, unlike mr I-hit-on-every-female-in-the-room, aka Rick.

Yup, I've made my decision.


	9. Mind games

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

okay so just so you know, I own no rights to the hunger games, or anything like that.

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><p>Quincy turns around. "Hey where's Tom?" Almost as if on cue, Tom walks into the room. "Did someone call me?" Tom was dressed as a sea warrior. He was wearing armor, but a special kind. It consisted of millions of tiny scales, like a fish's, that tapered off just below his ribcage. It was also made in a weird way that made his legs look almost like a fin. His whole upper body was covered with a shimmery fabric that looks like a shark's skin. His arms were attached to his torso with a wing of sorts. Fins. And there was a fin on his back. He had a shark tooth necklace, and this weird makeup on his face. He also had a swordfish sword in his hand, with gold netting intertwined with the ridges of the sword. He looked willing and able to kill. Half man, half shark. He raises his arms. "so watcha think?" All I could say was "Damn." Tom started laughing. "Well look at you! You're like some sorta goddess or whatever!" Rick suddenly attacked Tom. "SHARK ATTACKKKK!" Luckily, Tom jumped out of the wayy JUST before he hit him, sending rick flying across the room, and landing on a large bean bag chair. Tom picked himself up and disentangled himself from the clothes rack he landed in. "Yo watch it, man! You're wearing a skirt!" Tom gave up at trying to free his legs from the coat hangers and tights that were binding them. "Seriously you should stop jumping around, because no one wants to see that..." sideways glance at me "Well at least I don't, and I'm pretty sure Quincy doesn't either." Quincy nods in agreement.<p>

Tom gives me look through the corner of his eye that says **_don't lie, I know you enjoyed that _**jeez Tom really gets into my head sometimes, it's almost as if we can read each others minds... Well whatever the case, it made me turn beet red, basically saying **_oopsie, well I guess I'm guilty this time..._** He gave me a weird look saying **_Hey, don't you already have a boyfriend? _**I rolled my eyes **_I know... and I'm just looking. What is a girl not allowed to take a peek at a guy's abs anymore... and either way, why are guys allowed to peek at girls' boobs, but girls cant even glance at guys' abs? _**It was Tom's turn to roll his eyes. **_Quit being so feminist. You know that if you were my girlfriend I wouldn't be allowed to peek at anyone's chest! _**I sigh** _that's not the point! _**I was about to elaborate when rick cut us off "Whoa you guys are weird..." We both look at him, mentally screaming** _mind your own business_**! He jumped back a bit.** _Holy crap these people are intense! _**I look at Tom. **_Did you just hear... _**Wide-eyed, he nodded. Then, we hear an other voice, much quieter than mine and Tom's. **_What's up with Caro and Tom? they seem to really connect... Well I guess they would they're best friends! I just hope they're only friends... who am i kidding of course they are! right? I just really hope so.. I like Caro so much, and I finally got to tell her! I just don't want this to blow up in my face. If it does, I don't know what I'd do! _**omygod. that's Quincy! We were hearing quincy's thoughts! Tom looks at me. **_what the... That's not QUINCY is it?_** so Tom hears it too... **_I-I-I think it is... but that's ridiculous! because that would mean..._** Tom cut me off. **_Yeah. That would mean we can read minds. _**Holy crap. **_whoa. this is big. hey ya dont think... What I mean is... Can we do anything else? _**this new idea, although it was mine, shocked us both.

Tom just stared at me. **_well have you ever done anything strange? ya know, aside from your normal weirdness... _**I glare at him. **_ my normal weirdness? and yes, i mean no, well I don't know! I don't pay attention to these things!_** then get an idea. Tom looks kinda alarmed. **_What are you thinking? And don't lie, we both know that I can go into your brain and find out myself._** fine. I'll tell him. _**Well we seem to be able to put thoughts into each other's brains, so I was thinking, maybe we perhaps might kinda be able to put thoughts into other people's heads...**_ Tom grins. **_Okay lets test it. You see Quincy over there? how bout we try to calm him down... _**It works. Holy crap.

We switch back to talking normally after that, worried that someone else might be able to hear us. Almost as if on cue, Clay runs up to me "You need your makeup done. Now. Come with me." I follow her into my dressing room.

I was greeted by Constantina, who had about the equivalent of a whole makeup store on the table, and Jessica, who had a billion and one hairdressing things hanging from her belt and was bringing the stool over to the table. Clay sat down on the armchair and took out her sketchpad. She opened it to a page with a detailed picture of my face, with blue and gold makeup that was obviously designed to match my outfit. Jess turns to me. "sit." I sit on the surprisingly comfy stool, and stare at my reflection as Jess examined my hair, sighing. "How did you manage to mess this up?" I shrug. "I don't know..." She smiles. "It's okay, I'll just redo the basics..." I watch as the girl in the mirror, my reflection, transforms from a 14 year old girl, wearing a gorgeous dress, into a gorgeous 14 year old sea goddess, capable of anything. My skin was dusted with a light coverage of very fine blue, that give me an aquatic blue sheen. My eyelids were painted blue and white, with gold with criss-crossed pattern painted over it, and my cheekbones were dusted with a sandy gold blush. My lips were a neutral pink. My hair was loose wavy, making it look like ocean waves, and had a pea-sized seashell tied into almost every lock of hair. I also had a shell on a thin gold chain around my neck.

That was the point where Melina came in and did some finishing touches to my dress. "Okay so it needs to be taken in here," she said, tightening a seam in the waist, as well as the corset. "You're a lot more curvy than I thought" She lowered the hem, muttering about why can't I stop growing just for a week, and adding padding to the chest. Looking in the mirror now, I was even less recognizable. The dress' corset back and belt showed my exaggerated curves, and the lightness of the fabric made me look more delicate, more feminine, but the makeup and netting made me look capable of protecting myself, and basically tough. Vengeful. I was beautiful, yet deadly, and I absolutely loved it.

I was thinking about how well this outfit and Quincy's go together when I heard a voice in my head. _**Shut up, Caro, I'm trying to concentrate and I'm having enough difficulties without your lovey-dovey couple thoughts or mental images of your amazing dress and how nice it would look with gold gladiator sandals or a golden diamond-studded trident! **_Oopsie. I guess I was thinking too loud. **_Oopsie. Sorry I forgot you were there for a second... _**I quickly closed my eyes, and checked what Tom was doing. All I saw was a reflection straight back into my own mind. _**Hey! You said you were trying to concentrate! Get out of my head!**_ I giggle. Tom's weird isn't he? **_Exactly. I'm concentrating on figuring out what the hell else I can do! And you wouldn't know I'm in your brain, unless you were digging in mine!_** Good point. **_Ok ok fine! I was just curious and I wanted to test out the extent of our... talent._** That sounded lame... **_Then dig in Clay's mind! Or better yet, **_go fishing around in Quincy and Rick's brains!_**_** Oh. I never thought of that... **_ fine! _**

However, all I got was: From Clay- _**How cute would Caro look with a little gold in her eyes? **_And_** Now, what's for supper? I hope nothing greasy, that'll ruin my tributes faces!**_ From Rick-**_ I wonder what Laurence and Elli are wearing right now..._** and _**If only the world could see me now, they'd be at my feet! and I could get away with dating every girl in the country!**_ ...and finally, from Quincy: _**What am I going to say at the interview? I've never been much of a talker... But at least I have something to do for training... and I'll have someone to talk to and be with before I die, so with luck I won't be lying in the forest alone and impaled on an arrow or something waiting for death to finally come... Enough of that. If I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna have to be positive...**_

I mentally send him positive thoughts, but I'm cut off by an other voice in his mind saying _**Don't worry. You'll be just fine at the interview. Everyone will love you, and the games will go just as well as long as you stay strong. Do it for Caro, because although she may look fine, she's actually not, so be strong... be strong for her, and I will too. We'll make sure she survives. We'll just have to hope she can survive without us...**_ that tom! I mentally yell at him. **_TOM! _**but Tom doesn't seem to know what's going on. _**What? I'm trying to focus on your sub-conscience here!**_ My sub-conscience? **_Wait... You're digging around my deepest darkest secrets in MY mind? _**I detect a lot of confusion in Tom's voice _**Um... Yeah?**_ huh? **_So... what you mean to say is... it wasn't you in Quincy's head?_** Tom's really confused now. _**Um... no? Why would I be in Quincy's mind anyway?**_ I explain what happened. Tom seems concerned. _** Hold on... so if it wasn't you... and it definitely wasn't me... that means there's someone else out there that knows who we are, and is like us... **_Okay, I'm officially creeped out. **_But Tom, if it's not us, then who is it? _**Tom answers after a few seconds of deep thought. **_I-I don't know..._**


	10. Fil

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

*SIGH* Well I was hoping that after 9 times, you'd get the point already, but just in case you've forgotten, here we go again  
>okay so just so you know, I own no rights to the hunger games, bla bla bla enjoy the chapter<p>

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><p>Holy crap. So someone else actually knows... and whoever that is, they can put thoughts in people's minds like us... man I wish I knew who this was. Maybe if I knew who they were, they could help us... My train of thought was interrupted. <em><strong>If you don't tell me who you are, I won't tell you who I am, and I won't help you, so who are you and who is your friend? <strong>_Oh. They were listening. **_Well, my name's Caro. I'm from 4. My friend's name's Tom, he's from 4 too. Now you know who I am, so can you please tell me who you are?_** I'm getting nervous. I hope Tom's listening._** Fair enough. My name's Fil. I'm from 4 too, but I don't live there. I won the Games last year, and I ran away after. I live in the capitol now. The training building, actually...**_ So he's close. _**Really? That's where we are now! **_That's it. I'm gonna have to meet this guy**_. I know. Newbies think really loud. _**What? **_Newbies? What do you mean?_** How am I a newbie? _**What I mean is someone that's new to this. Wait, you ARE new to this right? like you haven't been able to hear peoples minds before? **_So I guess I am a newbie. _**Well.. no, but I've always been able to almost talk to Tom without you know... talking. Hey by the way, if I think really loud... what else have you heard?**_ His answer was so simple, yet so complex at the same time. _**Everything.**_

He stopped responding after that, so I occupied myself by digging around in Tom's head, figuring out just how much I can see, while my team sprayed, dusted, and spritzed about 100 or so products onto my hair and skin to make sure my look stayed exactly the way it was, and to make sure I don't get it messed up this time. Anyway, back to Tom, what I found was that if I really REALLY concentrated, I can see where he is, and what's around him, and I can see what he's seeing or what he's doing. Cool, but creepy at the same time... Because although I can see what everyone else sees, that means that other people can too... I'm really gonna have to be careful if I don't want people knowing my secret...

When we were finally free, we went straight to our rooms like good boys and girl... Well at least thats what we told our crew... I know, I know... bad little Caro, lying to her trainer and but hey, I'm gonna die soon, so might as well enjoy my last few days, right? So anyway the first thing we do, is go to my room, where me and Quincy (try to) teach the rest of the group a few basic french words. We fail miserably. These people really don't know how to roll their R's, speak fast, or even jam 4 words into one! How do they live? Anyway, after that, we went to the gym to relax and swim. With the gym being open, there were lifeguards, trainers, and other staff poolside and by the treadmills, as well as in the archery range, the marshal arts studio, and other specialized training areas. I was taken aback by the sheer amount of staff here, since it was the first time I've ever been to the gym during opening hours.

We were walking towards the pool, when I hear something, but not a normal something. Then Tom and I hear Fil's voice in our heads. **_Go to the water fountain, the one under the clock, and use the shortest fountain. Then look at the diving boards, like right away. Ok?_** Me and Tom look at each other. We both nod very subtly. **_Ok._** We walk over to the fountains. The shortest fountain was about 6 inches off the floor. Tom starts cracking up. "I wana try the tiny fountain!" Realizing what he's doing, I play along. "Me too!" Rick, however, ruins it. "Me first!" I cut him off. "No! you can use the other tiny one." He finally agrees. We attempt to drink from the tiny water fountains, me being tall, I practically had to lie down just to get a sip of water, just to get the jet of water up my nose, before realizing that the stream of water comes up to your height. Huh. Well at least Tom followed suit... **_Wow nice job!_** oh. Fil saw it. Crap! We turn to the diving boards, just in time to see some insane guy leap off the 5 meter, doing at least 5 backflips mid-air, before landing it in a perfect dive, displacing about a drop of water. Whoa.

I hear a buzzing in the back of my mind. The inner voices of 50 people. All buzzing about who this mystery diver is. Me and Tom look at each other. Each of us knowing that the other knows too. What did we know? We knew who this mystery diver was. It was Fil. Me and Tom both ask the same thing at the same time. **_Whoa! where did you learn that?_** We wait in amazement for an answer when we see Fil surface. The look on his face would make you believe he just canonballed off of the 1 meter diving board, and splashed the lifeguard, but not that he just did 5 flips off of the 5-meter platform! _**This? Oh it's nothing, just something I learned from jumping off of some ruins...**_ So this is the mysterious Fil... He's tall and thin, well-built, kinda pale, and has freckles. He has the basic traits of 4, but he doesn't quite look like a typical district 4 person. He's more vigilant than anyone in 4, and he seems to tense up at the subtlest disturbances, like someone landing in the water 5 feet away, or someone screaming on the way down. I guess the games really do change you...

Fil climbs out of the pool and walks towards us. "Hey! You're from 4 right?" Me and Tom respond automatically, while Rick and Quincy just stare at us, trying to figure out who the hell Fil is... "Yeah! I guess you are too?" We chat for a few minutes, until 2 members of the capitol guard, with 2 burley avox men walked into the complex. At the sight of them, Fil completely freaked out. "I-I gotta go. Sorry. Just... Just tell those people that... You've never seen me before in your life, except for on TV, got that?" We all nod. "Perfect. Well it was really great meeting you, and I'll see you soon." And with that, he disappeared into the engine shack, a small hut that holds all of the motors, generators and filters for the whole complex. Rick and Quincy look at us, with the most confused expressions I've ever seen. "Who...?" That was about all they could manage to piece together. Tom and I explain... kinda. "Oh that's Fil. He's from 4, remember? He won the games last year, but he ran away and now he lives here." We try to dismiss it as nothing, but it doesn't quite work. After about 5 minutes, we're forced to put thoughts into their heads to make them shut up. Thankfully, it worked.

A half hour passed, and the guards finally left. Almost as if on cue, Fil stepped out of the engine shack, just as the guards stepped out of the complex. Just then I noticed that he was dressed like a lifeguard. Surely he didn't get a job here! That would be almost impossible! I mean, first he'd have to get by the interview, then the background checks... But there's still that one possibility... No. Surely he wouldn't risk it!_** Yes I would, and I did. The capitol's a lot dumber than you think**_ Oh. well I guess he would... "Okay, the coast is clear, so we can expect them back in... an hour and 6 minutes" Fil says, looking at his watch, which was artfully disguised to look like a normal wooden bracelet. We stare at him blankly. "You seriously remember the exact times of the guards' rounds?" He grins and shrugs. "Yeah well the guard's the only people that know my face, and it's really simple, because they try to make it look random, but the capitol's never random, so they repeat the same 6-week schedule over and over" Wow.

We chat with Fil for a bit, then we go for a swim, and do some training. I learn how to make a simple, yet extremely effective bow using only stuff found in a forest, giving me an epic edge because there's forested regions in almost all of the games arenas ever used. I also learn about 20 new knots, and how to do advanced first aid. The trainer said that I'm gonna be unstoppable. After training, Fil assembles the rest of our allies, and brings us over to a smaller pool, that looks like a regular 25-meter pool, but with the shallow end cut off, leaving only a deep, small, square pool. Fil says it's perfect for playing this game called joe. Basically, joe's a survival game. There's one person on one side, and the rest on the other. The goal of the game for the single person, or the "joe" is to stop the group from crossing the pool. They do this by tapping a person on the head, but only when their head is above water. Once they have been tapped, that person joins the "joe" and the next round starts. The last person left un-tapped at the end of the game wins, and is appointed as the "joe" for the next game. Other than that, the game's a free-for all, making it my favorite game. Oh and there's also the fact that I'm reigning district 4 champion...

I've held the title for almost a year now, since Fil left for the Games. The last time I've played against him, he won. That was right after he got reaped. When he left, the title was left open for the taking, so I took it. It was easy, really. Joe's the kind of game where there's a few newcomers, many good players, some even with talent, but only a couple of great players. My ability to hold my breathe for a long time, fast swimming, persistence, and agility made me one of them. Fil's strength, long arms, speed and agility made him great. Rick was also up there, but he was always too confident, and he'd always dive too late because of that, believing he can swim around the "joe," but that can often go bad during the last 5 or 6 rounds. Fil's explaining the rules to Rel, Brad, Kelly, Anna, and Abby now. I can't wait for the game to start, because I know that it'll be epic.


	11. 1 hour

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

this is getting tiring, writing this all again, knowing your gonna skip it anyway, but watever... I own no rights to the hunger games, blablabla enjoy the chapter

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><p>After a couple games of Joe (One of which I won by the way ^.^), we went to lunch. Today being opening ceremonies day, there was an elaborate feast waiting for us at the table. As I chowed down on a plate piled high with salmon, sea bass, scampis, shrimp, scallops, oysters, clams, lobster, crab, and a chicken caesar salad. Yum. You may wonder as to why I was eating so much, well, the answer is simple: I had less than 4 days to eat, before going into an arena to play a game that was called the hunger games for a reason. Anyway, I was inwardly celebrating my victory against the stubborn crab claw that just wouldn't crack, when I noticed Tom stuffing his pockets with smoked salmon, celery, bread rolls, crackers, dried fruit, fried potatoes, seafood of all sorts, and even jerky. I mentally ask him what the hell he's doing, but am answered by Fil. <em><strong>I'm stocking up, for your sake, and mine. Don't worry about Tom, though. He'll be fine. As soon as I leave him, he'll come back, with perfect memories of the whole time I was there. Anyway, I'm stocking up for you guys. Throughout the games, expect silver parachutes with supplies coming your way. I swear, you guy will be the best-fed tributes ever. And this is just crumbs compared to my stockpile. You'll have everything: freeze-dried meals, medicine, food, water, weapons, shelter... everything you can need.<strong>_ ...So Fil somehow managed to posses Tom? Okay, thats unsettling, but still, if you think about the stockpile he must have all you can think is wow. He's got us covered. I thank him, and remember to cover for Tom (or should I say fil?) for the next little while.

After lunch, we stop by the pool area, and drop off the food at this closet that tom (fil?) showed me to. He seemed to have made some minor adjustments, because now it's a huge, refrigerated pantry, complete with enough food to sustain a peson for at least a year, or 9 people for about a month and a half... There was also a wall with everything from a slingshot to a bazooka, as well as everything from asimple knife to a sword, to a bow and arrows, to a trident hanging from it, right beside the shelf stacked high with inflatable boats, tents, small house kits (just add water), tons of clothing, more medical first aid stuff than you'd find in a hospitol, and even a motorbike with a trailer that seats 10. Fil wasn't kidding when he said he had everything we could need, huh?

After a while, enough time to arrange the new food we, Tom, no, I mean Fil smuggled, we head down to our stylists' studios to prep for the ceremonies. The minute I walk through the door, I'm attacked by some huge guard that picks me up and carries me across the room, through a door, down the hall, into an elevator, all the way to the sub-sub-sub-basement, through about a billion narrow, winding halls, through a tiny door in the wall, down a tunnel and finally into a large walk-in closet, where he puts me down. I immediately try to run out of the door, but find my path blocked by what I thought was a steel bar, but it turns out, it was actually the guard, who I later knew as Artemis, thet put his arm in the way. I try to escape anyway, but end up scooped up again, and slung over Artemis' shoulder like a potato sack, then brought over to the back of the room. I start screaming. "What are you doing? Put me down! Where are you taking me? Let me go now!" When this doesn't work, I resort to kicking, screaming, and even scratching. It works.

He puts me down on a stack of shoeboxes, so I'm the same height as him. "What the hell are you doing?" Hey! I was gonna ask that... "Me? What are YOU doing?" his answer shocked me more than anything else. "Saving you." Saving me? "From what? The hunger games?" I say, sarcastically. Artemis, on the other hand was dead serious. "Yeah, actually I am in a way." I open my mouth to speak, only to find myself completely speechless. After a few seconds, I finally find my voice again, but just barely. "No. No, that can't... W-why... Who... Wh-what?" The words can't seem to connect properly. Nothing makes sense anymore. He starts to speak. "I can't-" I realize what he was saying, and that infuriated me. I take a deep breathe, and shake my head. Everything slowly clears up. "Alright. So what and who exactly are you saving me from, what can I expect, what precautions should I take, what is the risk factor, and what do I have to do? And don't even try saying you can't tell me this, because I have to know, and if you don't tell me, I swear I'll call in everyone I know to come kick your ass, then I'll find out myself. Ok?"

I realized that I was grabbing the collar on his jacket. I gasp and let go, realizing my nails have pierced the soft, warm leather. He looks at me. His green eyes seemingly boring holes into mine. I catch my breathe. I also notice his face is about an inch away from mine. I suddenly fel like a little girl, beside this big, tall stranger. After what seems to be an eternity, he looks down at his collar, half-frowning and half-smiling at the 8 crescent-shaped holes. "You're stronger than I thought. I mean, I was expecting someone... special, you being the daughter of a victor, but I didn't expect anything like this!" I didn't get it. "What do you mean, anything like this?" I know I'm pouting like a 5-year-old, but, frankly, I don't care right now. He sighs, and starts to explain, becoming very wary of my nails. "Well, they told me you were feisty, and strong-minded, you being a victor's daughter and all, but you're way more than I bargained for. I was expecting someone like your mom, you know, smart enough to take care of herself, but only with help, and not morally capable of hurting, let alone killing, anyone. You on the other hand, well, what can I say? You're basically everything anyone imagines in a victor: You're stubborn, very strong-willed, physically strong too, you've got really long legs, so my bet is you can get outta somewhere fast if needed, you have no problems hurting anyone if it means you'll be okay, and you just look like someone you don't wana mess with, I mean even your nails are weapons! I have no idea how you got them so hard, so long, and so sharp, but after what they did to my jacket, I don't wana mess with you, or your nails for that matter." I smile. Part of me wants to kiss artemis, right here, right now, and nobody will know, and part of me wants to claw him, right across the cheekbone.

"Thanks." I finally say. "Oh yeah, and you also a cute, pretty side that can fool anyone into thinking that you're innocent, and kind, and wouldn't dream of ever hurting anyone, but what nobody sees is your dark, dangerous side, that rebels, hurts people, steals hearts and even enslaves men, I'm sure." Artemis is smiling to himself now. I start laughing, then, very seriously say, "So, you didn't answer my first question..." "... and what would that be?" He's grinning, and really quite charming... I quickly stop this train of thought. Now, back to business... "The question was what and who exactly are you saving me fro?m, what can I expect, what precautions should I take, what is the risk factor, and what do I have to do?" He laughs a bit. "Wow that's a question and a half. Ok, so heres the deal: Ice is worried about you starting a rebellion, so his plan was to put a super-strong anticoagulant in your makeup, don't ask how, because I don't know, but don't worry, I switched all the makeup and destroyed the poisoned makeup. All I know is that there's someone on the inside that's working for Ice and is planning on killing you. So you can expect people acting weird around you, because they think you're gonna bleed to death over a paper cut, because that's what the poison does, so what you're gonna have to do is act normal, like nothing happened, but make sure you avoid any scrapes, cuts, bumps, bruises... basically avoid injury, or someone'll notice and they'll re-poison you, and maybe this time I won't be there to save you. Now, your prep team's waiting in your second studio, and none of them know about this, so DO NOT SAY ANYTHING regarding this whole thing, ok? Just tell them that you were escorted by a guard to this studio, ok?" I nod, and almost clash heads with him because of our closeness. "Okay. But, one thing, can I tell my friends? Like Tom, Quincy..." He cuts me off "and Fil? Sure, as long as they can be trusted, go ahead." I was taken aback by what he just said. "H-how do you know about Fil?" He just laughed to himself and shook his head. "Oh boy. Well basically, everyone KNOWS he's here, but nobody knows exactly where, so we can't get him, but we know he talks to tributes in 4." All I could say was "Oh."

Artemis led me down a trapdoor in the closet floor, and through a winding tunnel that ended with a pink door. This is where he left me, saying he can't go any further. I walk into the studio, and am ambushed by Clay. She quickly explains that the rest of the team cant be here because Ice called them to an urgent meeting. She helps me into my dress, does my makeup, and adds some finishing touches to my hair, before announcing to nobody that I'm "Officially a perfect goddess." I smile triumphantly, as Clay sprays some stuff over my face, eyes and lips. When I asked her what it was, she simply replied "This is to keep your makeup perfect in case you cry, and to make sure quincy doesn't end up wearing it when you kiss him." Seeing my blank expression, she giggles "Well surely you weren't expecting us to let this all go without at least any lip action, right?" I bite my lip nervously. "Oh dear. Well on the bright side, this won't be your first kiss, will it?" I look shyly at my shoes. "Oh my, it is isn't it?" I nod. "Oh. Well no worries, maybe we can call Quincy in for a little rehearsal..." I look up at her, bug-eyed. "WHAT?" She starts laughing. "Well he IS your boyfriend, unless you want me to call in one of the guards..." I get so nervous, I start stuttering "W-well d-do we n-need to h-have a r-r-rehearsal?" She laughs "Of course we do! And even if we didn't, we don't want you guys to look like an awkward couple that doesn't know how to kiss! I'll tell you what, I happen to know a very charming guard that's also quite professional that wouldn't mind helping you out..." I cut her off right there. "NO!" she looks confused. "then how..?" I sigh "Well, there's an hour of free time between makeovers and ceremonies, right?" she nods "Well, I'll figure something out then, ok? No need to set me up with some guard or anything, I got it, ok?"

Soon, too soon, I was escorted back up to the 4th floor by Clay, all the wile getting advice and tips that I did not want. "Don't try anything your not comfortable with" "whatever you do, don't pucker" "just relax and you'll do fine." after a while, I find myself wondering why the hell i had to go all the way down to the emergency studio, today of all days!

When I finally get to the 4th floor, I make a beeline for my room, hoping nobody would see me. I was terribly mistaken. The first person parading into my room Artemis, who stabbed me in the finger with a tiny needle, only a centimeter long, and squeezed a drop of blood outta me, then stuck it on a strip, before inserting it into some compact machine. It made weird beeping and whirring noises for a bit, then a light flashed, and letters appeared on the screen. Artemis smiled, informed me that I was clear of toxins, and left.

The second visitor was Rick, who wanted to talk about strategies for our assessments. He was planning on throwing knives, punching a dummy, and running from station to station. After our conversation, his plan changed to throwing things first, then sprinting to the back of the room, collecting the knives, sprinting back, building a fire, then beating up the dummy and leaving it in the fire pit to burn. I'm gonna throw knives into the dummy from across the room, then impale him with a whole quiver of bows, all in one minute, then start a small fire, camouflage myself, and climb one of the artificial trees, swing from branch to branch, then land beside the dummy and slash its face open with my nails. Then I'll take the straw stuffing from the dummy, and use it to coax the red hot embers back into a blazing fire. Impressive, no?

Rick leaves, and Quincy walks in. I'm really gonna have to track down whoever installed a revolving door in my room!I open my mouth to tell Quincy about the... news Clay gave me, but he cut me off. "I think I know what you're gonna say, n I'll just save you the explanation." I give him a really confused look. "What?" He sighs. "Tyson told me about their... plan." I blushed... dammit why do i always blush? "Oh. ok. Watcha think about it?" We talk a little uncomfortably for a bit, before tyson walks in and takes Quincy back to his studio to finish some stuff on his outfit. He leaves, reluctantly, mouthing the words SAVE ME! I crack up.

Just as he walks out, Tom walks in. Once again, who the hell decided my room had a revolving door in it? "Hey I heard about your stylist' master plans" Toms flat out laughing at me. How nice of him... I was about to get up and push him face first onto my bed, when Fil walked in. Someone please tell me: what in hell happened to knocking on the door? He sits on the corner of the bed, as if it was his room, but then again, it probably was last year... "So, nice you stopped by, but um is there any particular reason your here?" Me and Tom ask at the exact same time. I hear whispers in my head, really intense ones. I guess this is what happens wen 3 mind-speakers (thats the name we agreed on, well fil and tom did, i wanted to call us ninjas...) are in a small space together. "whoa" I say, under my breathe. Fil notices it. "intense, right?" Tom answers "holy... yeah" Just then, I realized something. "Hey, if i can hear you guys whispering, even from a mile away... You can't hear... Do you guys hear my thoughts even wen your not listening?" They both grin mischievously "Every single second" Aw crap. _**Aw crap is right, you dirty-minded little girl**_ why don't they stop doing that, just for a second? A second passes, and then I get attacked by brain messages from Fil mocking me, and Tom who jumps on me, sending me flying back into my huge pile of pillows, and then attacking me with them. My own pillows! they immediately start imitating me. "My own pillows! thats just low. ok thats it, im gonna get revenge, and im gonna get it a 4:30 am!" Damn these guys are really annoying me. They both stop abruptly, "Oh sorry! are we annoying you?" Grrrrrrrrrr I send them the most threatening, scariest, evilest thoughts i can possibly think (and no, I will not tell you), and they stopped right away, and turned white, and inched to the back edge of the bed. Much better :). They look at me like I was about to claw their eyes out or something. I tell them to cal the hell down and then we started talking...


	12. mockingjay

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Well you guys just read my longest chapter, and im sorry for the delay, and this message that have been here for the past 12 chapters...so just in case you got amnesia or something here it is:  
>I own no rights to the hunger games, blablabla. enjoy.<p>

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><p>We talked and strategized for the rest of the hour. We planned how we were gonna impress the judges, figured out wat all the different supplies we might need are, tactics for the Games, and plans for the inteviews that always take place after opening ceremonies. My plan was to act like I was a normal 14 (almost 15) year old, that cant imagine how I'm gonna hurt anyone, because I dont believe in hurting people. Im gonna cry about missing my mom, and longing to reach my 15th birthday, and then talk about people at home. Im gonna be a sensation. We talk and talk and talk. About what, you may ask? Well we talked about everything, plain and simple. Tom talked about this girl named Lucy, who apparently was really pretty and had beautiful blue eyes. Well everyone says Tom has beautiful blue eyes, I dont really care about his eyes, though to tell the truth... I guess it makes sense though that 2 people with nice eyes want to get together, but then again, I have no clue what the hell I'm saying... Tom cuts me off mid-thought. <strong><em> No, you don't<em>** jeez why cant I think without these people listening in on me? Tom and Fil burst out laughing. "Well it's not our fault you think so loud! you've almost gotten me caught by those pinhead guards at least 5 times already!" Me and Tom look at each other, the almost die of laughter. "What do you mean, you almost got caught by the guards? Didn't you say you were too smart to be caught?" that last comment resulted in a huge argument, still not sure what about, but all I know is we were all talking about the different thing at once, when Tom throws a pillow at my face to shut me up, and starts a pillow fight. I don't get these guys, who apparently think that whoever can whack someone (also knows as me) hardest with a pillow's automatically right. Well anyway just for the record if that's the case, Fil totally won, but Clay's soooo gonna kill him now though because he chipped my nail polish with my duvet cover... I told him not to do it. He's gotta learn that I'm always right... and teach me how to use a fishing net as a weapon like he did last year, because even a duvet cover's like an extension of his arm... I knew Fil heard that, so I look at him meaningfully. He sighs. "Fine! You and Tom, meet me at the storage closet after interviews, ok?" We nod. "Good. See you there." And with that, he was off, just as Clay waked in.

Clay did a double take, watching Fil run down the hall, undressing him in her mind. Me and Tom look at each other, and laugh, knowing that Fil also heard exactly what she's thinking about... if only she knew... Fil sped up and ran around the corner, and out of sight. Clay turns to us, notices my chipped nail, and promptly kicks Tom out, obviously thinking it's his fault. I then had to spend about 15 minutes explaining as to why my nail is chipped, and, since I cant exactly tell her that I got in a pillow fight with a runaway, outlawed victor and my guy friend for half an hour, in my bed... for obvious reasons, I said that Fil was one of the trainer's apprentice and was explaining different things that can be transformed into a weapon, and different techniques to use them, and I decided to try a technique involving a duvet cover, and it flew out of my hand, and a bit of my nail polish must have caught on a thread and chipped my nail. Then, with the help of Fil and Tom, we all sent _Not Fil, Tom, or Caroline's fault _thought waves, and that's how we avoided getting into trouble. Clay then fixed my nail, asked me billions of questions about Fil, who was feeding me answers, thank goodness, and then it was time to go to opening ceremonies.

We met up with Quincy and Rick, and were led by our stylist to our chariots.

My chariot was even better in person. It was made up of ice, with sparkly white and golden sand, seashells, gold fishing net, gold, and silver hooks, a golden trident, ribbons of blue die, bubbles of some sort, assorted fish, and what looked like powdered gold, frozen into it. I stood in it, surprising everyone. They all expected me to dance around on the ice because it's so cold and I'm barefoot, but there seems to be a sort of clear coating over the whole thing, but you only notice once you touch it. It feels almost like skin, warm and soft, and your feet sink in to its warm, soft comfort. It squishes between your toes and makes you grin like a child at the beach. I take a better look at the fish, and notice their gills moving. They must be in warm pockets of water, lined with this cozy substance. I could just sleep in here for the rest of my life! I was dragged away from my cocoon of icy comfort, A.K.A my chariot, by Clay, who said there was someone who had to talk to us.

We walked down a hallway, and Clay led me into a den of some sort. Tom's already sitting on the sofa, across from a second sofa. Someone got up and hugged me. Mom. I looks at the people on the sofa, and see my dad, and sister. Also on the couch is Tom's parents, and his brother. I'm so confused. Why are our families here? Are we in trouble? My mom sits down, and I sit on the sofa beside Tom. "Okay, so what's this all about?" I ask. Mom speaks first. "Theres... something we need to tell you guys." Me and Tom look from face to face, each one revealing less than the last. "What is it? We ask. My dad starts. "Do you remember when you were 5 years old and I told you the story of how we got here? Well, we left some parts out... I look at Tom, whose staring back, just as surprised as I am. "What do you mean?" Dad sighs. "We weren't born in europe. We fled there." Tom looked at his parents. "and what about you? Did you lie too?" He's getting really tense, about to completely lose his temper. I gently stroke his hand, making him calm down. "Just listen to them ok?" He takes a deep breathe. "Fine." My mom starts talking again, but Maranda cuts her off. "I wanna explain." My mom nods, and my sister tells us the most messed up story of life...

"Have you ever heared of the legend of Katniss everdeen and Gale hawthorn? You know, Katniss' little sister got reaped, then katniss volunteered herself, and she won by faking a relationship with some guy named peeta and faking a group suicide, so the both won, right? and that started a little rebellion, and she became an idol. Do you remember what they called her?" I nod. "The mockingjay." Maranda nods. "yes! because of her district token, a mockingjay pin. And the capitol didn't like that. That's because the mockingjay's an example of one of the capitol's many mistakes. Now Caro, do you remember what happened to Katniss and Gale?" I shake my head. "No. Nobody knows. They all say they just disappeared. I guess the capitol got them in the end... Didn't they?" Maranda laughs. "Do you honestly believe the capitol got them? No, they didn't get them. They may say they did, they may say they got many, many people, but they're all still alive, and living at home in panem, some even in the Capitol." I gasp. "Fil..." Amanda laughs. "So you have met him. Anyway. Gale and Katniss actually made it to europe. They realized they had to come back when they had a child. Me." I realize what she's saying. "Do you mean that... that... that mom and dad... they're..?" She nods. "holy crap. That means... that must mean... the legend's real, so that makes me the..." Tom finishes my sentence. "That makes you the mockingbird." I look at him, incredulously. "You knew?" he nods. "Yeah. I knew. So do Rick, Quincy, Fil... anyway I don't know about the rest, but the 100th hunger game's gonna be the last.


	13. BRING IT

SIGH once again i did not invente the hunger games. blablablabla... enjoy the chapter

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><p>I gasp. I don't know if i want to punch Tom, hug him or just kill him, so I just do what I do best: stare at nothing. My mom and dad hug me, tell me it's gonna be okay, and my dear big sister tells me she'll be rooting for me, and she loves me, then she starts sobbing and hugs me. We cry together for a minute, then Artemis comes, reminding our families that the train leaves soon, so my mom puts a pin in my hand: her famous mockingjay pin. "I want you to go out there and do what you do best: stir up some trouble" She whispers in my ear, then she leaves too. I nod slightly to acknowledge her, then stare at the candle flame as it slowly burns down. One phrase bounces around my head, over and over and over. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I am the mockingjay. I. Am. The. Mockingjay! Tom finally broke me out of my meditative state. "I can't take this anymore! Caro! SAY SOMETHING!" I sigh. "What?" He grins. "it speaks! now come on we have have to get to opening ceremonies." I pick up the candle and carefully take it with me to my chariot. We arrived at the nick of time.<p>

We started rolling. My heart started pounding. I held my candle in both hands and smiled at the crowd, making my mockingjay pin glint in the candlelight. My smile, my posture, and my hair waving in the wind made the crowd gasp in recognition. I am the mockingjay, and they all know it now. Time to spread my wings. I look straight ahead, with an expression of confidence, and pure defiance all over my face. The crowd's eyes are all over me. Not thinking, I spread my arms, like wings, and let the wind catch my gold fishnet shawl and my hair. Tom turns around and gasps, recognizing the expression, and the birdlike image from the banned book: a scrapbook of all the secrets and everything that didn't go as planned for the capitol. We broke into the school in the summertime and stole it from the library a few summers back, and guess what the most prominent thing in the boo was? you guessed it. The mockingjay. Well, my mom, actually. I looked at the crowd for the first time, bringing about an other round of gasps. I felt my face and dress get warm. I look down and notice my dress turn from blue to a dark gray. A gray mesh unwound from the golden fishnet, leaving me in a dress exactly like the one my mother wore at her games, but my wings were golden. A wave of murmurs spreads throughout the crowd. I glance around the stadium, then resume my defiant, confidant pose. the ice in my chariot also changed. The ribbons of blue dye had transformed into grey mist within the ice. I heard Calpurnia Stansley, the announcer, scream "It can't be! It...It...It's impossible! The mockingjay has returned! you saw it here first, folks. The mockingjay has returned and with a vengeance, look at that! Sh-" There was a loud clash and the microphone went silent. Some calming music came on the loudspeaker, and the ceremonies continued. Tom's chariot is now beside me. We exchange wide-eyed glances. **_This is definitely going in the banned book! _** we both thought. Fil agreed. The rest of the ceremonies were a blur, then we were ushered into our dressing rooms to change for interviews.

Interviews went ok, untill it was my turn, and Cassa Nova asked me about my outfit. I was stumped. I sent out a distress signal to my friends. _**Help me out here!**_ Happily, Fil came to my aid. _**Tell them you heard legends, and you found a picture of the mockingjay in an old photo album and you and clay decided to do something like that. Be vague, but make sure everyone knows that there's more to the story." **_I smiled and said "oh It was just an idea me and my stylist Clay got" Cassa smiled supportively. "And how did you get that idea? because as you know, nobody's supposed to know or even talk about the mockingjay. It's banned stuff." I smiled. "Oh yeah well I found a picture of it somewhere a while back and I guess it's been in my mind a lot..." Cassa asked why, but I just replied with a vague "oh I can't tell you that!" The interview continued, and soon the bell rang, signaling that the next interview starts in 5 minutes. Cassa asked me one last question about the picture, which I answered with a nuh uh and a sly smile. I had them hook line and sinker. Wrapped around my finger. Under my control. Oh yeah.

A few minutes later, I was watching Quincy's interview. Damn, It's been half a day since I've talked to him, but so much has happened since then, it feels like forever! His interview went a lot less smoothly, and all Cassa was doing was asking a few standard questions, then went back to me. He answered as best as he could, but when cassa asked about the rumors about me and him, he just said "ah well we've gotten really close over the past few days, and we'll see what happens later in the game" And with that, the interview ended, and he walked off. Tom's interview was a lot like Quincy's but in stead of rumors about us, Cassa asked about our past. He told her the truth: that we're basically like siblings and that's it. He also said that he couldn't say anything about the mockingbird, because "it wasn't his secret to keep." Rick just breezed through his interview, and then we were all ushered out to change for training session.

We were dressed all in black, and ushered into a small cafeteria. Soon enough, it was my turn. I went in there, and saw a few stations. Not knowing exactly what to do, I went to the forested station, grabbed a dry vine, and brought it to the fire station. I lit a fire, then put one end of the vine/fuse in the pit. I brought the other end to a station with many dummys, and dropped it at the dummy's feet. I did some martial arts with them, then sprinted across the room back to forest. I climbed through the trees effortlessly, then grabbed some kindling from the branches. I walked over to the weapons station, grabbed a few knives, threw them at a dummy, hitting it in the head, chest, and groin, just for good measures, then I walked over there, dropped the kindling at the end of my vine/fuse. I took some paint from the neighboring camouflage station, wrote CALPURNIA STANSLEY on the dummy in red, then slit it's throat, then I propped it up right in front the kindling pile. I painted myself in browns and greens, then snatched up my knives, then a bow and arrow, fishing net (a skill recently gained thanks to Fil) and trident from the weapons pile, and stashed them all in a tree. I noticed my fuse still had quite a ways to burn, so I collected some edible plants, weaved a quick basket, and made a salad for the judges to enjoy, then I wrote BRING IT on the ground in moss, climbed a tree, and waited. A few minutes later, I threw my knives. I made a perfect circle around the dummy, then, as the kindling exploded into flames, I shot the dummy in the head with an arrow, and skewered it with a trident, making it fall into the flames. I brought the salad to the judges, and left, without a word, just as my message burst into flames. I glanced at them through the corner of my eye, to see them staring in awe at my burning display. perfect.


	14. last chance

For the 14th time... I own no rights to the hunger games, that belongs to Suzanne Collins... blablablablabliblibla have fun

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><p>We all met up after training sessions in my room. I was sitting on the bed with fil, tom and Rick when Quincy came in. "Hey Caro? Can I talk to you?" "Sure what is it?", I replied. "Alone?" He said. I got up. "Ill be back in a sec." He led me to the roof, in the garden, sat me down on the bench. "I'll be right back" he said, and with that, he was off into the deepest part of the garden, the very place I hear moaning come out of nearly every time I come up here. Gosh, I get it that these people are going to die soon, but a little discretion wont kill them! After a few minutes, I followed him in, because it was getting dark, you see, and I'm scared of the dark, unless I'm with someone I trust. Anyway, once I had finally wrestled through the sunflowers, vines, trellises and rosebushes (ow), I realized why its such a popular place to be alone... The center of the garden was a mini paradise. There was a shallow pool in the middle, a bench, and the softest grass I've ever touched. The place itself was just like my cove back at home. It was a cocoon of flowers of all sorts, illuminated by tiny twinkling lights in the ceiling of the place. It smelled amazing: like every pleasant scent I've ever smelled and more. It was comfortable; warm, but with a fresh crispness to it, like fall air. Just how I like it.<p>

Quincy was sitting on a blanket in the grass and looking through a picnic basket. Ohmygosh a picnic! This is sooo adorable! I walk up behind him and sit down, with the hugest smile on my face. "OH MY GOD! You did all this for me? You shouldn't have!" He spun around. "Oh um this... isnt... um..." My face went blank. "Oh. So you mean that... oh. Sorry..." He smiled. "Its alright, you thought... never mind." I got up. "Then what's all this?" He grinned. "There were a couple of guards here with their basket, and I doubted they were there on a date, considering the "lady" was a badly disguised guy... Anyway I listened in on their conversation and they were talking about the arena, then they left without the basket, so I figured, why not check it out?" I nodded, and Quincy pulled out a huge gold notebook with many pages ripped out, scribbles in the margins, and more dog-eared pages than I could count, so, needless to say, the blueprint for the arena was amazing...ly complicated. I couldn't decipher what the hell it all meant, and neither could Quincy, so we decided to bring it back to the others.

Fil was exactly where we left him; sitting on the corner of my bed, and Tom and Rick were trying to do... something with my pillowcase. As soon as I walked in, Tom and Fil both gave me funny looks. my response to that was try to attack them with a duvet... and I failed on many levels. First of all, Tom dodged my duvet last-second and it ended up hitting Rick, making him lose his balance and fall on Quincy, who then fell and landed on the door, making a really loud bang. My follow-through, aimed at Fil was not much better. Seeing my blanket coming towards him, he grabbed the corner and pulled, sending me flying into Tom, then we both went careening into the door, and before I knew it, I was tangled up in my own duvet with Tom, Rick and Quincy, and to make matters worse, Fil was pulling on his corner of the duvet, further entangling us and making it impossible to get unstuck. Great. Just perfect. Just then, the door opened, and Clay walked in.

Oh crap! She noticed the pile of humanity on the floor, and asked us if she was _*cough*_ interrupting anything, which made Fil all but die of laughter. "Oh no its okay I was just showing the kids here how to do that awesomeness that won me the games" Clay looked back at me, Rick, Quincy and Tom, all tangled up in my duvet and on the brink of suffocation, and laughed. "Oh yeah I remember that! So how are the students doing?" He looked at us, then back to Clay. "They're doomed" He said, laughing. Clay was off laughing, harder this time, anf we all just lied there unable to move while her and Fil laughed. We were finally freed from our cotton prison after a few minutes.

When I got up, I was surprised to notice that my hair was perfect, not a single strand out of place, and despite being all squished up in a duvet, my dress was unwrinkled. None the less, I smoothed out my dress, flipped my hair, and sat down on my bed, in an attempt to look dignified. Clay started cracking up. "ok well I guess you guys aren't up to anything, I was just checking, anyway I have stuff to do so bye don't get in trouble" She walked out, just as Fil exploded in laughter, Quincy gave him a weird look, and laughed too, soon, Tom cracked up, and before long, Rick fell on the floor laughing. We chatted and hung out in my room for an hour or so, when Fil brought up the fact that the games were coming up. "...So if there's anything anyones always wanted to do, do it now." We all just sat there for a minute, unable to move, unable to speak. Numb. I look around the room. My eyes first fall on rick remembering how I'd always wanted to make out with him, then Quincy, imagining myself in his arms, safe and sound and warm, like I've always dreamed. Fil, wishing I could be in his strong, hard embrace, then finally Tom. The sight of him brought on a wave of emotion. I still can't bear to imagine the last time I'll be able to look at him, see his evil smile and that gleam in his eyes that always tells me he's up to something, but now when I see him I see the one thing that'll never change: how I feel about him. He's my best friend, and I love him. I'm gonna miss having him there for me no matter what. I'm gonna miss his constant teasing about my clumsiness, and how he could always make me smile, even on my worst days. Basically, he's become almost a part of me, and losing him would be like losing an arm; going on without him's possible, but it'll be extremely difficult. He's grown to be my brother, and I can't let him go now. I tear up. Before I know it, I'm talking, telling him how I wish It wasn't like this and I never wana lose him because he's my brother now and I'm gonna miss him so much. We hug, and I start sobbing. Tom lets go and turns to Rick, saying something like "This is it, man," then Quincy sits down beside me.

He leans in for a kiss, but I pull away. "Quincy..." I look around the room, suddenly self-conscience. Rick, Tom and Fil were all full-out staring at us, open-mouthed and all. Rick was the first to talk. "what just happened?" Quincy just went back to his old self. "I-I just had to do that... You know, before I go to die..." He sounds like a 5-year old child, getting caught stealing a cookie. "Stop. Right now. Stop it! You don't know that your gonna die, you just might win!" Tom and Rick both look at me, and Quincy just stares at me sadly. I look from face to face, slowly piecing together what they're trying to say. "No. No! no. No no no no and NO! I'm not gonna let you guys scarifice yourselves for me. Nope. Not gonna happen. We're all in this together, meaning we all help each other out. No protecting any one person. And either way, I don't want special treatment. I'm a big girl and I can take care of myself. That's what my mom did, and since I'm the new mockingbird, I'm gonna have to do that too. Got it?"

Tom nodded, but Quincy and Rick just gaped at me wide-mouthed and stammered "Wait..." "Hold on a second here..." "...Time out..." "Rewind." "did you just say you're the new mockingbird?" "what?" I sighed. "Tom, explain." He did, kinda. All Quincy did was blink, and look at me as if I was about to sprout wings and fly away, and Rick started to stammer incomprehensibly. The clearest thing he could say was "B-b-b-b-b-b-but but but... but how?" Me and Tom laughed, then explained the whole story, or almost... Okay we told them nothing, just that my parents are Katniss Everdeen (aka the mockingjay, you know, the one that almost caused a riot big enough to bring the capitol to it's knees, but then she mysteriously dissappreared) and Gale Hawthorn (kaniss' childhood best friend. They ran away together after the 74th games)

They blinked, nodded, then said "So now we really have to protect you." I sigh, exasperated. "NO! I can take care of myself." They finally understood, I think. Tom got up. "Yeah but don't expect us to leave you somewhere to die just because you hurt your ankle or whatever and people are coming to kill us..." Rick and Quincy nod. I look from face to face, and notice they're serious. This makes me laugh. "Okay then, but don't expect me to be your damsel in distress. I'm just as capable of surviving on my own as you three combined."

Fil cracks up, then gives me a bear hug. "Im gonna miss you ya know that?" I smile, and hug him back. "Yeah. I'm gonna miss you too, so that's why I'm gonna make sure I come back" I pause. "well, that and the fact that, as the new mockingjay I kinda have to save Panem from the capitols evilness..." He laughs, still hugging me. Ahhhhh I could get used to this... _I heared that _aw crap. I forgot Tom was a telepath, or watever we are... Hopefully Fil didn't hear__... _Oh no I heard ___damn. that was Fil. #$%$#____! It's okay I could get used to this too. ____That was Fil again. I am overjoyed, I don't know why, I just am. Then I remember Quincy. He's sitting there, watching me. I feel a pang of guilt. Why didn't I kiss him? _Well obviously you dont have strong feelings for him_ Tom should really stop playing dr Phil... But he has a point... Ah well, I AM going to fight for my life VERY soon, so might as well... right?

I pull out of Fil's warm, comfortable hug, and turn to Rick. "Come here you!" and I give him an epicly big hug, unable to ignore how right, and how wrong it feels to be in his arms. It felt like a guilty pleasure, because here I was, in Ricks arms, on his lap, with Quincy, the shy guy that trusted me, in the same room, watching as I go and probably break his heart. I start weeping again. Rick started trying to comfort me. "shhhhh It's okay. I got you. Im not gonna let anyone touch you. Just relax." I knew Rick was a player, and could tell you anything to get something from you, but this time, I was pretty confident he was telling the truth.

Just then, a bell rang, followed b a voice on the intercom. "All tributes please report to the stations. All tributes please report to the stations. Thank you" We all got up. I turn to Fil. _Come with us? _He smiled. _Couldn't be happier to. _

We all walked down a long hall, and ended up at our changing stations. Our Games outfits were bathing suites, ours were blue, and the girls' version was a bandeau bikini with a purple 4 in the middle, and swirls surrounding it, with fish in the center of the swirls, and a golden fishnet skirt over the bikini bottom. There was also a belt, made out of this weird purple fabric, that felt almost like gel, or a goo, but when I looked closer, I discovered it was a very fine-woven fabric. _It's called kevlon,_ a voice in my head said, _It's really strong, except at one specific spot. It's usually a bit lighter, and it'll rip easily. There's a ton of survival stuff in there if you can get it open, by the way..." _I thank the voice, and go over to my platform, mockingjay pin securely attached to my bathing suit top. I closed my eyes and held my breath as the roof opened, and my platform lifted me up into the hole.

I opened my eyes, and got my first glimpse of the arena.


	15. Camp

I own no rights to the hunger games.

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><p>The arena is so much bigger in person, It's almost surreal. The platforms all opened up onto separate islands, in a giant circular lake. I could barely make out some land around the edges, shrouded in fog. There were 72 identical islands arranged in a circle. I take a look around my own island. It's small, maybe 10'' by 10,'' and there's a huge piece of fabric, an arrow, a knife, and a few jars of pigments scattered around it. I was itching to check out the supplies, but I didn't dare move, for fear of setting off the land mines, so I decided to look around the arena. There were many more islands, I couldn't count them, but there were at least 100, probably more...<p>

The alarm blared, and I sprung into action. I ran straight for the knife, only to discover it was blunted. The fabric, it turns out, was cotton, which is no good if it gets wet, and the pigments weren't much help either. The red jar was near an anthill, and was surrounded by a circle of dead ants. The pigment must have been poisoned. I decided not to touch it. Instead, I grabbed the knife, hoping I could find a rock someplace and sharpen it, and grabbed the piece of cotton. I examined my belt, and finally found the weak spot. My hand went right through. I shoved the cloth through the hole, and then watched as it repaired itself. Awesome. I looked back at the red jar. _Take it_ Tom and Fil told me. I paused, and that just got me bombarded by thought-yelling. To make them shut up, I carefully picked up the jar and put that in my belt, along with all the other jars too. Seeing nothing else that I could use on my island, I looked over at the other islands. Everyone seemed to be occupied with their spoiled loot. Among all the faces, I recognized 3 really familiar ones. Rick was straight across from me, Tom was right beside me, and Quincy was exactly between Rick and me. There was also the others in our original alliance, that has since folded, by the way, so now our alliance is comprised of Rel (the very attractive, very strong guy), Abby, Rick, Quincy, Tom and me. And Fil, but hes not in the arena fighting, he's just our supplies man.

I made eye contact with the rest of my alliance. Me, Tom and Fil were discussing strategies. We finally agreed that swimming to mainland was our best shot. I nodded towards the land that encircled the lake. They all nodded in agreement, and within 30 seconds, we were all in the water (which was salty, by the way, and therefore rendered undrinkable) and were swimming towards shore, very silently, so as to not catch anyone else's attention as we sliced through the water.

It took a long time, but the beach finally came into view. We stumbled onto the sand, feeling something solid under our feet once again. I stopped, with my feet still in the surf, and surveyed the beach suspicious. There was a white, sandy beach, with thick jungle behind it. Something didn't fit here. It was absolutely perfect! Too perfect. I took a few tentative steps forward. I poked my toe into the dry sand, and immediately knew something was terribly wrong. The sand was so hot, I had to yank my toe back. I called out to the others. "HEY! Do not go on the dry sand! It'll burn you!" They all stopped dead in their tracks. "But how are we supposed to get over there?" _You're not_, Fil said. _But there's always a way to do it anyway._ I thanked him, then I remembered the cotton cloth in my belt...

. . .

Before long, we were crossing Stovetop beach, which we named after its intense heat, using the cotton fabric as a runway to shield us from the blistering heat of the sand. When we reached the other side, we found ourselves in a dense, lush forest. We hiked for a little bit, carefully sprinkling poisoned pigments on patches of moss every 10 feet or so, to make sure we have an inconspicuous path to follow so we don't get lost. We soon found a large pine tree, whose branches reached the floor. The inside was like a giant tent. The floor was soft and spongey. Perfect. All we needed to add was a couple of branches here and there to make the tent waterproof. We laid out the cotton fabric on the floor, to make a blanket to sleep in, and then stained it with decomposed leaves. It's gotta certain smell to it, but I like it, and either way, it's not white anymore, and that's all that counts. After we were done with our adjustments, we all dug through our belts and found camoflage-print outfits. Once we were all done taking turns going a few meters into the woods to change into our dry clothes, Abby and Quincy volunteered to go find some edible plants. The rest of us decided it'd be a good idea to go hunting, or at least explore the area.

The forest was so beautiful, you can almost forget we were in constant danger. Everything was so green, and there were streams running around everywhere. However, we soon discovered that half of them were boiling hot, and half were cool, but slightly salted. We only found one stream that seemed safe to drink; the temperature was right, there were no dead animals or bugs around, and it wasn't salted. We sprinkled some pigment a few feet away from the stream, at the foot of a tree, and decided it should be safe if we boiled it. We looked around the stream, then kept walking. We soon found a Thalachite rock, perfect for sharpening knives. I sat down on a log, and started sharpening my knife. At that exact moment, Rick and Rel decided to wipe their sweaty faces with the bottoms of their shirts, revealing their insane abs. I couldn't help but stare. It only lasted a second, but one second was all it took for my knife to slip off the rock, and slash my palm. I screamed out in pain, and looked down at my hand. It was cut open like a piece of meat. I watched in terror as my wound filled up with blood. Soon, my hand was dripping, then pouring blood. I started to cry. No. This can't happen! NO! Thankfully, Rick and Rel came to my rescue, removing their shirts faster than I could say "help." Before I knew it, they were both at my side, in all their hotness, bandaging my hand with Rick's shirt, and tying Rel's shirt tightly around my forearm to restrict blood flow to my hand, and slowing the bleeding. Tom was sitting on a rock in front of me, finishing up my job of sharpening the knife and doing his best to avoid laughing his head off. Rel turned around to face Tom. "We need to make a sling." Tom rolled his eyes. _I saw how you were looking at those two, and I'm sorry but i'm just gonna make it clear that, unless you really REALLY need it, I intend on keeping my shirt._ "Theres some spare cotton in the tent. Let's head back now, and till then she can hold her hand above her head."

And with that, I fainted, maybe out of pain, or maybe blood loss, I wasn't too sure, all I know is that I fell face-first into Rels abs (miam) and when I opened my eyes, I was in the tent, on a moss blanket, while my hand was being expertly bandaged by Tom, who usually can't tell the difference between gauze and disinfectant wipes. He also had a full first-aid kit, the kind the emergency first-aid workers use... Strange... He smiled at me. "Hey, Caro! hope your feeling better." _It's Fil by the way... _I sat up "oh hey..." _wait... WHAT?_ I stared at him. Yup. that was definitely Tom, but he was sitting and smiling exactly like fil... I was mind-blown. _Whoa!_ Tom, no Fil, no Tom's eyes twinkled. _I know, right?_ He was finishing up his job of bandaging my hand. It felt amazingly better. No more pain, and my skin was a normal color again. I wiggled my fingers, then flinched. "ow. How deep is this thing anyway?" Fil chuckled. "Do you really want to know?" I nodded. "Yeah. Tell me." He sighed. "fine then... you cut your hand pretty deep, almost to the bone actually, straight across the middle of your palm." I closed my eyes. "Ok. Ouch. So what did you do to my hand?" He smiled. "Well... first I got you over here, then I cleaned the whole thing out, and all I'm gonna say's good thing you were passed out, because that was a very dirty cut..." I winced. "...Anyway then I put a couple drops of this amazing stuff that heals and reduces pain into the cut, then I sewed the whole thing back up, and bandaged it. No big deal, I've done worse." I smiled and remembered the time Fil got his hand caught on a hook in a fishing net... It almost ripped the fleshy part of his hand off with it's wicked sharp, rusted point, but luckily he got to a first aid kit in time, and, refusing help from anyone and everyone, cleaned, disinfected, stitched up and bandaged his hand. _Ouch._ I thought. He nodded. _Thats one word for it_ He tied off the last bandage around my hand, really tightly. I winced. "Okay ow! Was that really necessary?" He smiled. Yup. If I didn't tie that last one so tight, you would bleed to death in your bandages." I love how lightly he says that... as if we were casually discussing fish recipes over a hot cup of coffee, and not talking about a deep gash in my hand, in the middle of an arena, surrounded by people that want us dead, and all the wile he's possessing Tom's body! Fil noticed my panic and gently put his hand on my shoulder, caressing it._ "_Hey relax. It's really not that bad. With those healing drops it'll be healed in a few days tops." _And by the way, Tom told me to do this, because he has no idea how to deal with injuries and he seriously doubted that anyone else on camp could do it too, so this was the only option, and don't worry, Tom's fine. My body's in bed, fast asleep, and Tom's sleeping in me, so relax everything's fine._ I nodded. "okay." He smiled. "Great! Now I hear the others coming from their search, so I'm gonna get some sleep ok?" _In other words, we're gonna go back to being me and Tom being tom, but let me know if you need anything. _I nodded. Ok. Good idea. I think I'm gonna lie down too," I said, noticing that it was getting dark. "Goodnight!"

The next morning, I was awoken by a muffled scream in the woods, then a canon fire. Before I was even fully awake, I knew wat was going on; we weren't safe anymore, and now they're coming._Oh shit_ I thought, then he came.


	16. the climber

I own no rights to the hunger games... your probably not even reading this anyway... ok well ya happy reading

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><p>My heart was racing. My bad hand was throbbing. My good palm was clammy. My eyes were opened wider than they ever have been before, and I could almost hear the heartbeats of the attackers. I was in panic mode. This wasn't just a game. It was real, and I could die. Right here. Right now. Scratch that, I probably WILL die, being right-handed, and with a heavily bandaged right hand, I cant even handle a kinfe, and either way, my knife fell somewhere in the woods when Tom dropped it. I have no bow or arrows, and Tom's gone to find the others. Not to mention the fact that Abby and Quincy are still off collecting plants and Rick and Rel are off somewhere looking for a place to wash my blood outta their shirts. So basically I'm left to fend for myself. With no weapons. And one useful hand. Aw hell!<p>

I stand up, and face the "door". I take a deep breathe. Calm down, I tell myself. You can do this. I slowly inch backwards towards the tree trunk, hoping I can hide behind it and then surprise them... but what will I use as a weapon? The reality of how helpless I really am starts to sink in. I frantically look down, examining my body, searching... but for what? Then I found it. My mockingjay pin. It's in my pocket, and it's pulsing. I pull it out, and pin it to my chest. In full view. Then, I look up to face the attackers. I can hear them drawing nearer and nearer.

I hear a noise coming from the tree above, and panic set is as the pine needles from the disturbed branch fell around me. I hear the attackers outside stop, and start whispering. I only catch small bits of their conversation "thought she was alone..." "he...with her?" "we... Outta here!" "Who..." "You don't know...?" "...thought you knew him!" "no!" From what I could hear, they had no idea who this climber is. So he's probably here for one of four things: To kill me, to join our alliance (yeah right), to steal everything, or to save me. The attackers have backed off... for now, but I can still hear them a few meters away. I look up to try to see the mysterious climber above me, but all I see's dark shadows in the tree. Suddenly, I hear an other crack come from directly above me. I jumped to the side. This time, a sizable log landed at the exact spot where I was standing a millisecond ago. I look up, and see the mystery climber for the first time.

At first, all I could see was shadows, then I identified the still-attached end of the branch that almost killed me, then I worked my way down, and finally spotted a dark figure, wobbling on a thick branch 2 meters off the floor, trying to regain his balance. On first glance, I thought he had pigment smeared on his face and arms, so he can blend in with the foliage, but the more I looked, the more I noticed how even the chocolate brown color was; no darker or lighter patches, no bumps or streaks... And then I got thinking... There's nothing in this forest with that color. It then dawned on me that his actual skin must be chocolate brown. I tilted my head to one side. Huh. I've never seen anyone with dark skin before. It was interesting, and almost strange... Exotic. I was immediately intrigued by this dark stranger. He looked down, and his dark eyes met mine. "Sorry!" He mouthed to me. I smiled back at him, whispering "It's okay." He grinned back, with teeth so white they almost glowed. Just then, he raised a rough crossbow, loaded with 5 makeshift arrows, all dipped in pigment and ready to bounce, and pointed the contraption in the attackers' direction, finger on the trigger, and making shooting motions, then looked back at me, nodding, asking for approval. I nodded back, and mimed shooting a machine gun at them. He laughed, then pulled a knife out of his belt, and tossed it down to me. My knife. The one I sharpened and lost in the woods. I picked it up and grinned back up at my new mysterious friend, then we both turned to face our attackers.

The first to walk in was in a word, giant. He was at least 6'5" and, by the looks of it, stronger than an elephant, muscles rippling under his tan skin. In any other situation, he'd be incredibly attractive, but right now, he was scary as hell... and he's getting closer, his light brown eyes glaring at me coldly. I hold up my knife, threatening. "Are you sure you wana do that?" I asked, noticing he was seemingly unarmed. He laughed coldly, pulling a machete out of his pants. _He should really be careful about where he puts that thing... wouldnt wana "unexpected sex change"_ Fil said im my brain. It made me laugh. "Might wana watch were you put that machete. Don't want it to slip..." I said, throwing my knife directly at his groin.

Naturally, he (or should I say she?) screamed, and fell to the floor, writhing in pain. He was reaching for his machete, that fell beside him, when the climber screamed "MOVE!" I moved, just in time to see a shower of red pigment fall from the canopy, landing on the now writhing figure on the floor. He screamed again as the poison came in contact with his skin, and went rigid as it fell into his mouth. He was dead within seconds. _It's cyanide and acid, _said Fil._ Kills within seconds and burns your skin. If it touches you, rinse it off and cover it with a water-grass paste. Oh and never EVER let it get in your mouth! The only way you could eat it would be if you mix it with nightlock berries. The poison in one cancels out the poison in the other._ I look back down at the disfigured body on the floor, and watch as the floor opens and he falls onto a platform, and the floor closed itself, leaving no trace of the giant but my knife sticking out of the floor.

Suddenly, a shorter, thinner boy with blue eyes and a dark tan ran in. "Lian! Lian!" He turned to me, raising a sizable knife, preparing to throw it at me "What did you do to him?" Just then, an arrow flies from the canopy, piercing his arm. He gasped, and tried to run out. He fell before he left the tent. I ran to his side and pulled the arrow out of his arm. "Im so sorry, and I wish it didn't have to be this way." He started to shake, and he put a necklace, with a wooden wolf on it in my hand. "G-G-giv-give it-t-t-to m-m-my f-f-famil-l-ly" I nodded. "okay" And with that, the cyanide took him, and he was gone.

I got up shaking, arrow still in my hand, and watched in horror as the boy got lowered down into the earth. I never knew his name. Finally, a small boy, not older than 12, walked in with a bulging backpack. His big blue child's eyes stared at me. "Where's francis? Mommy told me to stay with him, so I need to find him." I smiled. Francis isn't here anymore. I don't know where he is, but he told me to give this to you. You can stay with us if you want, okay?" He nodded. "Okay. My name's Ethan. I'm from 7." I smiled. "Well then, Ethan. My name's Caro a-" Suddenly, the climber jumped down from his perch, careful to leave his crossbow in the tree. "And my name's Chris! Pleased to meet you." I laugh and try not to look surprised as Chris shakes a very wide-eyed Ethan's hand. We made a hammock for Ethan with some of the rope he had in his bag, and he was passed out within seconds.

I walked over to the other side of the tree-tent, and sat down on the log (the one that almost killed me) beside Chris. "Okay, so I know your a good guy, like you coulda killed me any second, but you didn't, but seriously, who are you?" Chris smiled. "I'm your prince charming" I laughed. "I know, I owe you one, but really!" He laughed. "Ok well legit, I'm Chris, I'm from 11, I'm 14, uh... What else do you wana know?" I smiled. "oh I dunno... maybe you can start with why you're here... since you haven't killed me yet..." He smiled. "Wellll I saw you guys swimming, so I followed you, cause it seemed to be a better idea than standing there after taking 2 arrows to the leg, and having a knife slice my arm... Anyway I guess you didn't see me because I was a lot slower and still had to grab my stuff off my island. So yeah I just copied you to get across the beach, and I made a quick crossbow and a couple arrows when I got to the jungle, and I was looking for a drinkable stream, when I heard voices, then i followed you guys, planning on raiding your campground, when you slashed your hand, so I followed you, and grabbed your knife when the blonde one-" "Tom." I interrupted. "...When Tom dropped it. So then one of the big ones, I think his name was Rel or something, almost saw me, so I got scared and climbed a tree and I followed you from the camopy, and wen I saw the first aid kit, and how well Tom bandaged your hand, I figured might as well join these people; they're well-equipped, a good number, seem smart enough... so why not right?" I smiled. "Well you made a good choice!" I looked down, and noticed the arrow stubs sticking out of his pant leg. "Here. Come with me. We have to get these arrows out." He sighed, and limped over to the medical part of the tent, where I was waiting, first aid kit in hand.

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><p>WARNING SLIGHTLY GRAPHIC CONTENT. IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH, OR CANT STAND BLOOD, SKIP THE PART IN <strong>BOLD<strong>

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><p><strong>I don't know how he got over here, because his leg wounds were N-A-S-T-Y! When he pulled up the hem of his pants, I was expecting a bad wound, but this was worse than I thought. The arrows were piercing his calf muscle, and one was shish-kababing his leg. Both were surrounded by dried blood, and lots of it, and when I washed that off, he was already showing signs of infection. This was bad. <em>Lie. Tell him its not as bad as he thinks,<em> Fil told me, so I did. "Well... On the bright side, It's not as bad as you think! But these arrows still has to come out before you get an infection." He shut his eyes, clenched his jaw, and told me to just do it, so I took a large pair of surgical pliers, and yanked out the arrows. It took a wile, but they both came out, with a great squirt of blood, and tons of puss. Great. I let the puss drain out of the wound, before wiping it off, then checked his shinbone for any signs of fracture. Luckily, no bones seemed to be harmed, so I went ahead and cleaned the wounds with gauze and alcohol, which dripped through the skewered hole, bringing with it tons of dirt, blood, and puss... Well at least it's not still in his leg, right? I then pulled an arrowtip out of the other hole (apparently they're made to detach...), and put a drop of healing liquid stuff in each wound, before stitching it up (with Fil's guidance, of course) and bandaging the whole thing up nice and tight. Then I moved on to his arm, which despite looking like a slab of meat halfway through getting butchered, was much easier than his leg. All I had to do there was wipe off the blood, disinfect, heal, stitch and bandage.**

When I was done, he stood up, testing his leg. "Hey! It's better! Like, It doesn't hurt!" I smiled. "That's because you had arrows in your leg and an infection!" His grin left his face. "Infection? What kind of infection?" I decided to be vague. No need for details. "Oh you know, the kind with a bit of goop in it... Don't worry! It didn't spread, and it's all gone now." His smile returned, and he started flexing his injured biceps. "And this? What did it look like?" I shrugged. "Oh you know... just like an oversized paper cut... Tiny cut, no big deal." He nodded. "Well, I'll tell ya one thing, it didn't FEEL like a paper cut, that's for sure!" I laughed. "Well, how is it now?" He was grinning ear to ear. "It's perfect."

That was when the others came back.

Tom took one look at Chris, then noticed Ethan asleep in the hammock, and started laughing. "Hey Caro! Sorry we didn't realize you were expecting guests... We only brought 6 salmon..." He looked at the "guests" pointedly. _Who the hell are these dudes?_ I shrugged. _I'll tell you later_ He rolled his eyes. _You'd better!_ Chris looked from me, to Tom, then back to me, confused. "Oh it's okay I ate before I got here... Yeah sorry hope you don't mind, I just dropped by..." I cut him off "Yeah and saved my life!" I told them the story, getting cut off a few times by Chris. When I was done, Rel said, "Well then I guess you're one of us now! Welcome to team RelRick, you-" Quincy, Tom, Abby and I elbowed him, then Chris corrected him. "You mean team mockingjay... right?" He glanced at my pin. "That IS what your pin's from right? The rebellion?" Tom cut in. "Actually it's the original." I kicked his shoe _Shut up!_ He smiled. _Oh you haven't told him? _Chris raised one eyebrow. "...Oh... so like the ones they gave to the rebels, right?" Tom shook his head. "No, the ORIGINAL original." Then I bombarded him with telepathic yelling.

Judging by the look Chris gave me, I had some expaining to do...

Aw crap!


	17. Intruders

Well I know none of you are reading this part anyway but whatever I own no rights to the hunger games.

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><p>Chris was just staring at me. "You don't mean..." He shook his head. "No! That's impossible!" He looked sideway at me "...Right?" Tom grinned, obviously enjoying himself, and Quincy looked at me. "What's impossible?" Chris answered. "It's impossible that that could be Katniss' pin! They both disappeared, with the pin!" Tom started laughing. "Did they?" Chris looked really confused. "I-I think so... Wait, so thats the original mockingjay pin? Like THE pin? The one that Katniss wore during the 74th?" I nodded. He blinked. "But how did you get it?" Tom grinned. "From the mockingjay herself. I was there, so I know." I sighed, and looked from incredulous face to incredulous face. "I guess I got some explaining to do huh?" They all nodded.<p>

I sighed again. "Okay well I guess I'll start with the beginning. Up to about 2 days ago, I just knew my mom was a victor and my parents came here from Europe, its like Panem, but with no Capitol. Anyway, I've never been allowed to see the tapes of the old hunger games, and I guessed it was because she didn't want us to see her in the arena. Then, right before the opening ceremonies, my parents and sister came and told me the truth: My mom is Katniss Everdeen, and my daddy's Gale Hawthorn, and they gave me the pin. Tom was there for moral support." They all stared at me. Tom came and stood beside me. "So now you're looking at the next mockingbird." Rick and Rel both screamed "COOL!" while pushing Tom to the side and draping their arms across my shoulders, telling me how they got my back, and we're gonna win this together. I wished I believed them. Quincy stormed out of the tent. I broke away from Rick and Rel to run after him. I made it to the opening of the tree-tent, when I heard a scream. We all broke into a sprint, towards Quincy, who'se now crouching in a small clearance with a hand clamped to his thigh. Oh no. No. No. NO! Not Quincy! He's been so nice through everything! We hear rustling in the trees above. The attackers. Quincy stands up, revealing an apparently un-harmed leg. He looked at me, his blue eyes full of remorse. He looked like he was trying to say something, but he couldn't, so a boy jumped down from a tree. "You trusted the wrong man. And now, the mockingjay will shut up. Once and for all."

It was a trap! I shoulda known... He started walking towards us, brandishing a knife. Quincy looked at the knife, wide eyed. I could sense that this was not part of the plan... Or at least not part of Quincy's plan... He stepped forward. "What are you doing? I didn't say you could kill her!" He turned. ''You didn't say I could have her?'' I looked at Quincy, shocked. ''You thought you could just give me away after you can't use me anymore, like an old pair of shoes? You know wat, I'm glad this happened so I can see wat a loser you are.'' and with that, I walked away, holding back tears.

Chris was in the tent looking for his crossbow. He turned around when I walked in. I gave him one look, then ran into his arms crying. He comforted me. ''It's okay. You didn't know. He's not important anymore. I got you. It's okay. You can do better than him.'' I stopped crying. ''You really tink so?'' He nodded. ''I know so.'' I hugged him just a tiny bit harder. It felt good. I really needed a hug. ''Thanks so much'' He patted me on the back. "You okay now?" I nodded. "Yeah." "Great! Because there's 3 people coming our way. They'll be here in a minute or so... Looked like they were planning on coming in from the back, and I could really use some help holding them off..." I smiled, and pulled my knife out of my belt. "Okay. Let's go." We turned to face the back of the "treetent" (the word we invented for our camp) Chris ran up to the tree and was in the branches within seconds, preparing his crossbow. Then, I remembered he was from 11, so he must be good with axes, right? _An axe would be helpful now..._Within seconds, Fil delivered. The silver parachute miraculously dodged all the branches and landed next to me. The note on it read:

_**Dear Caroline,  
>I have no clue why the hell you want this thing, unless its for your little boyfriend over there (nice catch by the way) so yeah here be careful though its really sharp, and it's the only good one I had, since you, Rick, and Tom can't throw axes for your life... Anyway your doing really good keep it up and don't get too... distracted by your friend. See you soon, and if there's anything you need, let me know.<br>-Fil  
>PS: they got lost in the woods, so you got at least an other half hour.<strong>_

I started laughing when I read the letter. "Hey Chris! It's for you!" He jumped down from his perch. "Really?" I handed him the axe, but making sure to take the letter first. "This is for me." He looked at me through the corner of his eye. "Okay... Can I see it?" Uhoh. "Um..." He looked at the paper, which was now clutched to my chest, then back at me. "Please? Just a peek. It might help..." After a few seconds of consideration, I sigh and hand it over. "Here you go... But it's just gonna confuse you." He laughed, and read the letter, then re-read it. "Wait... Who'se Fil?" I laughed. "Told you it would confuse you. Anyway I guess I gotta tell you now, but there's no way of explaining without saying the whole story, so sit down for a sec, we got half an hour." He obliged, and I explained the whole thing, from the beginning, about me and Tom's... abilities. He sat and listened for a good ten minutes, when I finished my story. "And now you know." He smiled. "So... what am I thinking about now?" I smiled. "Bacon, home, music, food..." I said each thing as it passed through his mind. "...how cool this is, if you can block me, trying to block me, rabid purple bunnies, home, your old bed, your family..." We went on for a little bit, when one final thing popped up in his head. "...You want to kiss me...?" Then I realized what I just said. "Sorry I must have read that wrong..." He smiled and shook his head. "Nope." I smiled, unsure of what to do. "Um, okay..." He noticed my nervousness, and smiled. "You don't have to right now, you know. It's okay." I smiled. "Okay."

He gave me an other hug, and my head exploded in warning signals and sirens, compliments of Fil. Screaming, I pushed Chris away. Then, the sirens faded to buzzing, and my brain exploded in fil yelling _THEY'RE COMING! STOP WITH THE LOVEY-DOVEY-NESS THEY'RE 50 FEET AWAY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GET READY! THEY'RE COMING! DO YOU WANA GET KILLED? GO! DO SOMETHING!_ My hands flew up to my temples, gently massaging them. I opened my eyes to see Chris's concerned face. "Are you okay?" "Yeah, no I'm gonna be okay. Don't worry." I take a deep breathe, making my migraine slowly fade away. "They're 50 feet away and are coming closer, so you really should go back into your tree, and get ready," I whispered. He paused. "You sure you're okay?" I shook my head to clear it. Bad idea. A wave of throbbing pain passed through my brain. "Just... Go. Now." He climbed back to his perch, mumbling. "Okay..." I walked to the tree trunk, hiding from the attackers. A second or so later, they walked in. _It's empty. There's nobody here. There's nothing useful here. You should go. _I repeated those phrases over and over in their heads, hoping they'll believe it. Sure enough, I hear a voice. "It's empty." Then, a second voice. "Well no s***, Sherlock! Do you see anyone here? No. So if nobody's here, what do we call it, Joe?" Joe answered. "We call it empty, Mart."

A third voice spoke. "Hey, I hear something!" Joe and Mart stopped bickering. "What do you mean you hear something, Greg? We're under a tree. An empty, dead tree. Nobody's here, and by the looks of it, nobody's been here. Let's go." Greg protested. "But I HEARED something! Like a stretching noise." Just then, an arrow flew out of the tree canopy, piercing Greg's heart. Mart screamed. "He's right! Someone's here. Let's go! You check around the trunk, someone might be hiding. I'm gonna stay here and try to find that b***ard in the trees." I notice Chris reaching for his axe. _No! Joe first. You'll lose the axe forever if you throw it now. _He seemed to understand, and grabbed a jar of black pigment instead. He sprinkled it onto Mart. Not enough to injure him though, just to burn him a bit. He screamed. Just then, Joe reached the trunk. __Nobody's there. __Nobody's there. __Nobody's there. __Nobody's there. __Nobody's there. __Nobody's there. __Nobody's there. __Nobody's there. __Nobody's there. __Nobody's there. __Nobody's there. __Nobody's there. __Nobody's there. __Nobody's there. ___Nobody's there. Turn around._ He turned around and ran back to Mart. "Mart! Mart! What happened?" I peeked around the tree. Mart was getting up from on the floor. "My dad told me about this... It's tracker jackers! Quick! We need leaves, water, and 2 rocks. Go get them. NOW!" So then Joe left, leaving me and Chris alone with Mart. Perfect.

Chris jumped down from the tree, axe in hand, and I ran out from behind the trunk. Mart screamed. "I'm unarmed! I'm unarmed! Don't kill me!" Me and Chris exchanged glances. He winked, I smiled evilly, and we had made up our minds. We turned back to Mart, and I smiled, sweet as honey. "Of course we won't kill you! Not if we don't have to, of course. It's early in the game, time to form alliances, right?" He nodded. Chris continued. "...So... It's Mart, right?" He nodded. "Yeah..." Chris continued. "Well then, Mart, don't panic. You're among friends! Right, Caro?" I nodded, smiling. "But of course! Everyone that knows anything would know that the larger your alliance the better!" I sent a quick message to Tom, telling him to get rid of Joe. Chris kept going. "And you know, friends help each other out, and we couldn't help but to hear you mention something about your father being a victor..." I cut him off "...And that intrigued us so much..." Chris gave Mart his winning smile. "...Care to share?" Mart looked at Chris, then at me, then back at Chris. We were smiling, so sweetly it was sickening. As a last resort, I batted my eyelashes. "Please? I find it sooooo interesting..." I played with a strand of my hair and lightly bit my bottom lip. He looked at me, obviously buying our whole show, but hesitant. Chris nudged my foot with his toe, as a sign to keep going. I leaned in and whispered in Mart's ear. "I can keep a secret" He looked at me. "Okay. Well I guess I'll tell you..." We nodded supportively, and he continued. "Well my father's Peeta Mellark. He was Katniss Everdeen's lover, you know."

I was repulsed. My mom told me about Peeta Mellark. How he forced her to be his lover, how he even tried to force her to marry him. How much she hated him. No, she was never his lover, she was his prisoner. Her heart always belonged to Gale. All I wanted to do was punch this son of a dog in the face, but I couldn't not yet. He had knowledge that was much too valuable to risk losing. Remembering this, I forced a smile. "Oh really? That's so cool! You must know tons about the hunger games then..." Chharwill nodded. "Yeah I know more about the Games than anyone in this arena!" _ugh wat a cocky little thing he is..._ I thought. Tom replied. _Just keep it up... I just checked and he's totally buying it... Stupid little sucker..._ I sighed inwardly. _Fine! But you're paying for it later..._ I smiled, and giggled. "That's sooo interesting! Tell me more!" He was like clay in my hands. "Well..." and then he proceeded to tell us all about every single inner working of the games, every strategy that could possibly exist, and so much more. Yes! our plan worked. Now, all we have to do's get rid of this sorry little twit...

I looked up, and smiled, a little less sweetly this time. "Wow you DO know a lot!" He smiled back, in a sorry attempt to be seductive... "That's not all I know a lot about... If you know what I mean" He winked. Ew. I forced myself not to flinch, and pretended not to notice. "I'm sure you do..." He cut me off. "Well, babe, there's only one way to find out..." An other wink. Ugh. "Slow down! It's only the first day, and I don't even know you." He didn't even flinch. "But you want to know me" He reached out and stroked my cheek. Chris tensed up beside me. This seemed to be bothering him just as much as me. I pushed Mart away. "Don't touch me." He smiled, and stepped forward, stroking my hair. "What's the matter, baby? You shy?" I hit him in the groin with my knee, and pushed him away. Hard. "I said don't touch me! And I'm not your baby." He got back up. "You're feisty. I like that." I stepped back, closer to Chris. "You're sick!" He grinned. "And you're beautiful. Just like Katniss was." I slapped him in the face. "Don't talk about her like that!" My eyes started welling up with tears at the thought of my mom. Chris stepped between us. "You should go." He was towering over Mart, but Mart just smiled up at him. "Why should I? I like it here, and the company's great!" He added, looking at me, "I think I'm gonna stay!" I grabbed for my knife, just as Tom walked in. One look, and he knew what was going on. He ran up to Mart, and knocked him out in one punch.

We all just stood there for a bit, checking if Mart was actually knocked out. Turns out he was, but not dead. The floor would have opened if he was. I was the first to speak. "Thank you." Tom nodded. "I woulda hit him anyway... He looked like a jerk." Chris started laughing. "Well that sounds nice." I smiled. "I coulda taken the sucker, you know." Tom snorted. "Of course. That's why you were hiding behind him!" He pointed at Chris. "Were you planning on hitting him from behind the big, strong guy?" I blushed. "I panicked!" Chris laughed. "It's okay. I'll protect you." He put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. I smiled. "Thanks."

We tied Mart to the tree trunk with some rope, quadruple-knotting it behind the trunk so he can't reach the knot. We also bound his hands to the sides of the tree trunk and bound his legs together from the thighs down, so he doesn't get any ideas. Then we gagged and blindfolded him, for good measures. Abby, Rick and Rel came back as it got dark. Abby looked at the slumped figure tied to the tree questioningly. "Whose that?" "That," I replied, "Is the creep of the year." Chris exploded in laughter. "Yeah. Also known as Peeta Mellark's son." She raised her eyebrows. "Peeta Mellark? Like that creep that tried to marry Caro's mom?" I nodded. "The very one." She nodded, then walked over and kicked him in the groin, waking him up. Luckily, his muffled screams were soon drowned out by the cannons.


	18. first night

I own no rights to the hunger games.

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><p>The sky lit up in white light, and a slideshow of all the tributes that died today played, a replay of their death scene following each photo, and a canon firing before each new photo. The first 5 or so didn't phase me too much: all people I've seen once or twice during training, maybe exchanged a few words of advice, but I didn't know their names. Their deaths were all the same too: either drowning or killed during the initial bloodbath.<p>

The 6th, however, shocked me. It was Brad. He followed us like Chris did, but he couldn't cross the beach, and Mart's alliance got him. I couldn't believe it. He's actually dead. I felt like I had a marshmallow in my throat, and I was growing. I couldn't breathe. I was choking on my own grief. "He can't be dead... No! He can't!" Tom was beside me. "They're not serious are they? He's really dead?" I nodded. Tom screamed, and punched a tree. Then, we watched the deaths of an other few people, when we saw Joe's death, and the others we killed. I felt sick. I helped kill them. They're dead, and It's my fault.

Then, I saw something that made me really sob. It was Quincy. I watched as he betrayed us, then walked away and got ambushed. Tom watched beside me, jaw clenched. There was also some girl named Rebba that died... I didnt know her... the only interactions we had was her muttering mean things to me wile passing, shoving me, and basically being mean. I didn't understand. I've never done anything to her! That was why, for everyone else, I felt sorrow for their families and friends, but for her, I thought good riddance. She was terrible. I still wasn't happy she died, because she didn't have to. I'd never wish death on her, or anyone for that matter, but I wasn't exactly crying and sobbing...

Abby, on the other hand, was silently crying. I turn to look at her. "You knew her?" She nodded, whispering. "She was so mean..." I looked at her, confused. "Then why are you crying?" She looked at me. "Because she was misunderstood. I don't know what happened to her that made her like that, but something hurt her really bad, so she tried to get rid of the pain by spreading it out on other people." I was confused. "Well she's in a better place now. She can't hurt anyone or herself anymore." She started sobbing again. "She didn't have to die!" She was hysterical. "Nobody has to die. You hear me? NOBODY!" She screamed that last word into the dark woods. Now everyone knew where we were. I look at Chris and Tom. We were all thinking the same thing. Abby had to calm down before someone comes. I tried to get her to calm down. "I know, Abby. I know. But you have to calm down." She glared at me. "How do you expect me to calm down, when I'm in an arene full of kids killing each other?" I patted her on the back. "Shhhhhhhhh. I know it's hard, but you have to quiet down, or else our faces will be up in the sky tomorrow night. We're not alone in these woods, and people are going to come kill us if you don't quiet down." She sighed. "Okay," and went back to silently crying.

Rick and Rel volunteered to stand guard that night, and the rest of us all fell into a troubled sleep. I had never fallen asleep hungry before, and at that moment, there wasn't anything I missed more than my bed, and my refrigerator, and my family, and all of my blankets and pillows... Basically, I was homesick, and everyone else was too. Abby fell asleep crying, and Tom kept mumbling in his sleep, no doubt thinking about home. At least they got to sleep. Chris and I were lying awake till dawn. Every hour or so one of us would ask the other if they were still awake. We didn't talk much that night. Just a few comments back and forth about home and everything we missed. I finally fell asleep around dawn, wondering who was going to die next, and how their families will cope without them. I had strange dreams that night.

First I dreamed I was home, but not all there. I could see the house, my empty bed, and my family silently sleeping. Iggy, my loyal dog was beside my pillow, whining and snoring in his sleep. My cat, Mally was sleeping on my lambskin rug, a very rare commodity, in front of the heating vent. My room looked so normal, as if I was still there. All that was missing was me. I silently vowed to return. I looked around my room and felt as if I was there. I wished I was really there. I wanted to lie on my soft bed under my chandelier and read all of my books, stare at my late Grandad's favorite painting, which was hanging on the wall beside my bed, and see the art Grandad loved. I saw my cork board, another rare commodity that had to be imported, and remembered that I had planned to meet with my best friend Rosie today. I wished I could be there, in my hot pink room with it's pastel pink ceiling and lime green doors, covered with posters of celebrities, and certificates I earned from competitive swimming and school. I also had lime green frames, a silver and crystal chandelier, queen sized bed, softest in the district 4, the only maple floor in the district, my window with steel blinds, and a view of the forest in victor's village, oh and of course my perfumed lambskin rug, white desk with gold inlay and a bookshelf/cabinet over it, making up an antique 7-foot mantlepiece, the only of it's kind. There was also my oak bookshelf; a short cabinet, stained blue, on top of which my fishtank was resting. It was filled with rare tropical fish, 2 dwarf shrimp, a large speckled suckerfish and a giant snail. Needless to say, I was used to luxury, and that night, while I was lying on my bed of moss-filled cotton, with a linen sheet as a blanket, I missed it.

I woke up after the first dream, but drifted back off to sleep before long. This time, I dreamed I was walking through the woods around our camp. I saw people crouching in the bushes around my trail. The trail itself was non-existent, but it was clearly marked out by invisible markers. I couldn't see them, but I was drawn to them, like a moth to light. I started paying attention to the crouching figures around me. Some were injured, bleeding, and painfully thin. They looked at me with hollow eyes. Others were chained up and screaming. Some looked like the living dead. They were impaled on sticks, tridents, arrows, some were piles of lumps of flesh. Then I recognized some kids from my Games; Quincy, Brad, and Joe. Something told me that they knew something. Something I needed to know. I reached a clearing, and there was a golden net, a golden trident, a black bow and arrows, golden ropes, a black crossbow, a golden knife, and vials of black poison. I took all of these things and brought them back to my camp. When I reached my bed, I saw Rick and Rel sitting at the base of the tree trunk, and Abby, Tom and Chris sleeping peacefully. I suddenly felt relaxed, and fell asleep among my friends and weapons.

I woke up the second I fell asleep in my dream. Everyone else was still asleep, except for Rick and Rel, just like in my dream. This was getting weird. Even weirder, I sat up and noticed a golden net, a black bow and array of black arrows, golden ropes, a trident (also gold), a black crossbow, a golden knife, and vials of black poison. Whoa. Tom, Chris and Abby all woke up with a start at the same time. Chris was the first to notice the new stuff. "Hey what's this?" he reached for the trident. Abby smacked his hand away. "Don't touch it! It could be a trap." Tom stared at the net, fixated. I smiled. "Go ahead. It's not a trap. I brought it here." Tom lunged on the net, and Chris grabbed for the crossbow. A far cry from the rickety one he made. Abby reached for the poison. I gently picked up the bow and arrows. It started humming and vibrating. I immediately knew what this was. It was my mom's bow. I whispered "goodnight" to it, and it stopped humming. Abby looked at it, mesmerized. "What is that?" I smiled. "It's my mom's bow. It was made for her, so she could destroy the capitol, but it was never used. She ran away before they finished it." I stroked the bow, and it came back to life. Abby grinned. "How did it get here?" I smiled. "I don't know..."


	19. black and gold

I don't own the hunger games

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><p>Rick and Rel noticed the gold, and came over. We explained everything, then Rick picked up the trident, and Rel grabbed the sword. Suddenly, we felt more powerful. We were tied together in an alliance of black and gold. Together, we made up The Mochingjay Alliance. There was Tom, the hothead, Abby, the genius, Rick, the joker, Rel, the jock, Chris, the protector, and of course me, the mockingjay.<p>

That's when we remembered Mart. He was still tied to the tree. We took off his blindfold and un-gagged him. He was shaking. I untied his hands and bound them more loosely in front of him. Then, I gave him a few fruits to eat, so he doesn't go into shock or anything. I want to keep him alive and mentally complete. He's much more useful that way, never know when he might say something that could help us. Also, I didn't want to kill him. I felt bad for him, since he comes from a long line of losers and all... Ah well... We can't all finish out on top...

When Mart finished eating, he tossed the cores, then looked at me, deep in thought. After a few seconds i asked him what was wrong, and he simply asked "Why didn't you kill me? You killed my friends, that much I figured out, and I already told you everything, so why are you keeping me alive?" I smiled. "Oh you never know. You might come in handy someday." He smiled. "I don't think that's all, and I know I'm very brave to say this while bound and gagged, but I think it's because you care about me and don't want to lose me... Am I right?" I was so mad at him for saying that. How dare he? He's just like his dipwad father. I glared at him. "How dare you?" His smile faded. "What's wrong?" I clenched my teeth, and glared. There's something different about me when I'm mad. Something changes. My eyes go dark grey, and my hair gets wavy and dark. I look like a demonic goddess when I'm really enraged, like that moment. He seemed to notice. "Um... Are you Okay?" I exploded in anger. "Of course I'm not okay! You're just like your dad, you know that? And the nerve! You're flirting with me on top of all of that. Really?" He looked down. "I-I'm sorry... But how do you know what my dad was like?" I glared. "I've heard stories." He looked confused. "From who?" I re-clenched my teeth. "That doesn't matter. What matters is you have the nerve to be hitting on me so stop." He looked at me sadly. "Well it's a shame you say that, you know. You're so beautiful, I can't help myself!" I gave him the evil eye, so he stopped his puppydog look. "What's his name?" I sighed. "Why do assume there's a guy?" He sighed. "Because I saw how you look at him. I just want to know his name." I sighed. "Fine! His name's Chris, but I don't knw, you know? Why do you care anyway?" He smiled. "Yeah I know. And what would your name be?" I looked at him questioningly. "...Caro. Why do you care?" He smiled up at me. "Caro. That's a pretty name..." I cut him off. "Yeah yeah now why do you care?" He grinned. "I don't know. Just because." Slightly creeped out, I re-tied him, this time by one ankle, and with his arms tied securely behind his back, and a rope around his neck too, for good measures. That way, he can walk around a bit, but not escape, or kill us for that matter, and left.

I joined the rest of my team, who were testing out their weapons behind our camp. Rick was in the midst of making kindling out of a tree stump with his trident. Whoa. Tom was busy de-leafing a tree with his net, while Chris was shooting at trees with his new crossbow, muttering to himself about how amazing the aim was, Rel was chopping down trees with his sword (apparently it's called a samurai sword and was ancient even to the ancients), giving rick plenty if wood to hack up with his trident. Meanwhile, Abby was mixing her poison with the laced pigments, then pouring hot water from a nearby stream on it, causing mini explosions in the grass, leaving smoking craters of death in the weeds. Apparently she's found a new way to poison people, and couldn't wait to test it. Great. Smiling, I joined Chris in target practice.

Archery has always come naturally for me. Almost as naturally as swimming, come to think of it, and apparently it's one of Chris' gifts too. Even with my tricked-out bow, I was barely beating him in target practice! He dropped his crossbow. "Hey! You're pretty good! Here, let's switch I want to try out yours," He said, reaching for my bow, I reluctantly obliged, picking up his crossbow, even though I had no clue what to do with the thing. I had never used a crossbow before! My mom always refused to let me use anything other than a longbow, like my black one, that Chris was holding. I turn to him. "Um... How do I use this thing?" He cracked up. "You don't know how to use a crossbow?" I shook my head. He came closer. "It's simple. All you have to do's load the arrow, like this, and aim... Then you press this to shoot," he said, showing me the components of the contraption. I was still confused, so he took the thing and shot at a nearby tree, slowly this time, explaining every step, then he passed the crossbow back to me. "Okay now you try." The crossbow felt weird in my hands. I hadn't even shot it yet, and I already hated it! I took a deep breathe, relaxed, and loaded an arrow. It took a few attempts, but I got it, and then I aimed, and shot.

The arrow whistled past the 3-foot-wide trunk in front of me, barely missed a second tree, almost hit Rick's trident, whizzed past Rel's sword, nicking the handle, and finally planted itself in an apple. After many apologies, I ran over to collect my arrow, and, picking up the apple I got an idea. Rick snatched it out of my hands. "Hey! An apple-kabab! We used to melt chocolate and dip these in it. It was really good..." He opened his mouth to take a big bite, when Abby ninja-kicked it out of his hands. "Don't eat that!" He cradled his hand. "Ow! What's your problem?" She picked up the apple and waved it in his face. "This could be poisoned! You can't forget... We ARE in the hunger games, after all..." She turned to me. "How can we test this so we know for certain it isn't poisoned?" I shrugged. "I... Don't know... Any ideas?" She shook her head, but glanced over her shoulder, obviously thinking about something. I followed her gaze, straight to Mart. I looked at her. She looked back, defensively. "I knew you wouldn't like it, but that's the only way. We can't keep him long anyway, it's not good for us, and it's not fair for him, either." I didn't know what to say. "Well... Neither is using him for food safety testing!" She sighed. "Caro... This is the hunger games. Nothing's fair here. I'm just trying to make it easier for him, and if he gets very sick and is suffering, believe me, I'll end it as fast and painlessly as I know how." I took a minute to think, then halfheartedly agreed. After all, she did have a point.

I walked up to mart, and explained one last thing to him: that I was Katniss Everdeen's daughter. He smiled. "Are you gonna kill me?" I cried, and nodded. He didn't seem surprised. "My dad told me it would happen. That I'll meet a mockingjay, and that she'll even have a beautiful name, but I won't be able to have her, and she'll never be mine, but I'll still have to do whatever I can to make sure she survives, and then I can protect her from heaven, so I don't mind dying, if it means you'll get one step closer to winning, because you deserve it, so take care of yourself, and I guess I'll see you on the other side, eventually..." He smiled, and I gave him a hug, and started crying. "I'm gonna miss you, and I really hope it didn't have to be this way..." He cut me off. "Shhhh. Don't talk. Just let me enjoy this." I nodded. "Okay."

Abby walked up to Mart, and I had to step aside. I watched helplessly as Abby fed the apple to Mart, and as he started choking. I ran up to his side. Abby looked at me. "What's wrong with him?" I shook my head. "I don't know." Suddenly, he stopped choking, and his breath returned to normal. All the blood drained from Abby's face. I tried to read her thoughts, but I was just bowled over by a huge wave of thought processes, ideas, theories, and memories. She was searching, scanning every inch of her vast mind, trying to find that one scrape of memory that can help us. Finally, she found it, with a gasp. "Iocane powder!" I looked at her, surprised. "You don't mean..." she nodded. You see, Iocane powder's named after an ancient fictional poison. First, it makes you choke, then suddenly stops affecting you for a minute or two, during which time it'll melt your insides, and it'll kick in again, and all of your innards become this soup, resulting in a very painful death, leaving you bleeding through everything, even your pores. We called in Rel, explained everything, and knocked him out, and placed him at the foot of the apple tree, and watched as he was sucked into the ground.

The rest of the day wasn't too eventful, except for the evening...

We were all lying on our moss beds, watching the sky as it announced the death of an other 10 tributes, ending with Mart, making me cry once again. We were so distracted by the sky, we didn't notice intruders coming, until they were literally on top of us.

Before we knew it, we were tied up in a circle around the tree trunk. There were 10 of them. 5 boys and 5 girls, all muscly and at least 16. Even Rel, the biggest and oldest of us, had surrendered. Abby and I were tied up beside each other, and she was panicking. A guy was walking towards us with a smile that immediately made me wary. He called to his friend. "Hey Jo! Come over here, I found the girls!" Jo Came over and smiled. "Yeah man this is what I'm talking about!" Abby started blushing. She was panicking. I sent calming thoughts her way, assuring her that I had a plan... Although I had no plans that she'd like, and the plan I had, well, let's just say she'd rather die... I looked back at the two guys that were now drooling in front of us.

"Like what you see?"


	20. Abducted

copyrights of the hunger games belong to suzanne collins.

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><p>Jo came up to me. "As a matter of fact we do..." As I predicted, Abby looked at me, incredulously. Even Tom and Fil were surprised. <em>What the hell you doing? I thought you had a plan. Is THIS your genious plan that'll set us free?<em> I told them to calm down. _Don't worry. This WILL work... as long as abby doesn't have a heart attack..._ they both snorted mentally. _Sure. _I batted my eyelashes. "Oh really? How much do you like it?" The first guy walked away to check on the boys, and Jo came a bit closer. "A lot." Abby was freaking out. _HES GONNA RAPE YOU!_ Whoa. I didn't know she was a telepath... whatever I'll talk to her later. _Don't worry. I got this figured out. _I look back to Jo. "Show me how much" he was standing right in front of me. "Make that shirt disappear and I will" I tried to get up, but, being tied to the tree, I couldn't. "If you just untie my hands for a sec, I just might." He hesitated "Well, Jon told me..." Then I gave him the LOOK and said, "I won't tell." He melted. "Okay, and what about your friend...?" I sent a mental note to Abby. _Just play along, and we'll have him tied to the tree in a minute._ She reluctantly agreed. "If you untie me, I'll rock your world." He untied us. Abby took the ropes. "Now come here, you bad, bad boy." He smiled, thinking to himself _I can't believe my luck!_ I sat beside him and played with his hair, while Abby tied him up. She gave me the signal _He's tied. _I smiled. _perfect._

Then, I stood up, and walked away, to the guy's side of the trunk. Tom was already free, And 2 of the girls were tied up, and 2 of the guys were KO'd on the floor. Meanwhile, Rick and Rel were talking the plan a little too far, so me and tom stepped in, much to their disappointment, and the 4 half-dressed girls (what whores) were tied to the tree before long. There was just Jon, some other guy, and 1 girl. They were all in a cluster, and before we knew it, Chris dropped Tom's net on them from where he was sitting in the tree. At that point, they were entangled in the net, unable to escape, and getting more and more trapped as they struggled. Perfect. Tom, Rick, and Rel then knocked them out, along with the tributes that were tied to the tree, stripped them of any weapons and anything else that we could use, then killed them quickly before they woke up, so they never felt a thing.

We put our new stuff in a pile, then took inventory. We had: 8 sweaters, 10 knives, a bow, 30 arrows, 3 swords, 4 ropes, 5 pairs of pants and 7 shirts (still clean and unworn), a large stash of clean underwear, 5 pairs of shoes, 5 pairs of gloves, 10 blankets, 6 sleeping bags, and 10 belts, collectively containing 10 sheets, 10 sets of poisoned pigments, 10 sweaters, 10 pairs of sweat pants, 100 hair elastics, and a HUGE inflatable mattress, with a memory foam cushion on top, and built-in pillows. I smiled to myself. This is gonna help us. Fil was even impressed. _Nice haul!_ Abby screamed and turned white. _Ohmygosh what was that? It wasn't me... What's wrong with me? Maybe I'm being possessed! Maybe I have schizophrenia! This is bad. I have to do something, say something, anything! But they'll think I'm crazy! But then again, I AM crazy... They'll probably kill me... No. I won't tell them. After all, I'm probably just imagining it. The games do that, I think..._ I rolled my eyes and looked at Tom. Fil was dying of laughter, telling me and Tom privately, _Wow she really thinks she's crazy! This is too funny!_ (privately means it only goes to me and Tom, and not Abby, or anyone else...) Me and Tom looked at each other, rolling our eyes. _Abby, You're not crazy. You're telepathic. Like us! It's a good thing, so stop freaking out._ She clamped her hands over her ears. _STOP IT!_

That's it. Me and tom walked up to Abby. "Hey, Can we talk to you for a sec?" She agreed. We walked over to a clearing near a stream, where me and tom sat her down and explained the telepathy thing, and the Fil thing, and, many, MANY questions later, she nodded. "So... You guys have telepathy, and so does this guy that's hiding from the Capitol, who made a huge stash of supplies, and he's sending it to you on demand during the games?" we nodded. "Exactly." Fil cut in. _Oh and "This guy" has a name by the way... I'm Fil. It's really too bad I couldn't meet you first, but hopefully I'll meet you when it's all over_. Abby blushed. "I'm sorry fil! I didn't know your name!" I laughed. "Abby that was outward. You need to say it inward." She blushed more. "Oh." _this better? _I nodded, making her grin. _Yay! I got it! Well anyway as I said... Sorry Fil I didn't know your name... _Fil laughed. _Don't worry about it. It's fine, I'll forgive you, and you're doing great with the thought-speaking. You just need a bit of practice, then I'll show you some really cool stuff._

We re-joined the group, with a basket of berries and fruits each, compliments of Fil, as a cover story. The berries were much appreciated by everyone, especially Rick and Rel, who polished off a whole basket by themselves, and went in for more. We didn't argue. After all, we can always get more! The atmosphere in camp was cheerful, despite the fact we were in the Games. We had comfortable beds, sleeping bags, weapons, and so many provisions just a thought away. Of course, Rick, Rel, and Chris don't know about the Fil part, but they were still happy with the berries, so we decided not to tell them. After all, what they know can't hurt them, right?

In their good mood, the boys decided to go hunting for some lunch. In their absence, Abby and I decided to look around the camp for streams, berries, or anything else that could be useful. Realizing that the camp was going to be unprotected, we left Fil in charge of watching it, with direct instructions to notify us if anyone come close.

Before long, we reached a clearing, and a river. There were blueberry and raspberry bushes, as well as a strawberry patch, and watermelon, pumpkin, and cucumber vines. We used some tall grass and thin branches to weave baskets, then filled them with berries, melons, and cucumbers. Then, we turned to the river. It was crystal clear, with a fast, yet gentle current, and it even smelled fresh. The bank was grassy, with clovers, peppermint, dandelions, and wild flowers all over. My mom told me about places like this on the rare occasions she would mention the Games. It was an oasis. There's one in every arena, but there's also many "False oasis's" out there, so we gotta be careful. First, we decided to test the river. We tied a worm on the end of a thread and dipped it into the river. After a minute, we checked it, and, seeing that it wasn't boiled, frozen, or dead, we deemed it safe-ish, but we weren't sure if we could drink it. We were thinking up a way to test drinkability, when a doe came up to the river and drank some water. She didn't die, go into convulsions, or anything, so we decided the water must be fine.

We were about to mark a nearby tree so we can find this river again, when it happened. We were knocked on the floor, and, before we knew what was happening, we were face-down in the grass, and 2 people were sitting on our backs and tying us up. _Hey are you guys okay? Somethings wrong, I can feel it._ That's when I remembered two things: Oasis's are never filmed, so Fil can't see us, and Abby and I are telepathic. _Ohmygod Tom! You gotta help us! We're in this oasis behind the tent, it's marked in red. I really don't wana die please help!_ Abby caught on and started sending similar messages to Fil. Meanwhile, Tom was confused. _Wait what? What's happening? Where are you? _I explained the predicament, while Abby got taken away. She was screaming and crying. I gave tom directions. _Oh and please please hurry! I'm so scared I don't want to die!_ He told me to relax. _Calm down. We're on our way._

While I was waiting for the guys, I assessed my situation. I was lying with my face in a peppermint patch, and the rest of me on a bed of soft grass and moss, in the middle of a warm oasis, with a fresh, cool river to my left, and garden, full of fruits, vegetables, berries, melons, and all other edible things to my right. All around were fragrant flowers, and fruit trees, some bearing fruit, and some blossoming. Above, was a warm sun, and a light breeze blew through the oasis, bringing with it cool, fresh air, and the fragrance of roses, cherry blossoms, and other flowers. The place looked like a large version of the rooftop garden in the training building..._ Not that bad a place to be stuck, if you ask me_, I thought. Tom laughed from wherever he was. _So we don't need to save you?_ I paused, then remembered the fact I was tied up. _Yes, you do need to come save me! I was just being optimistic..._ Tom snorted. _Fine. We'll be there soon._

Within minutes, Tom walked into the oasis, followed by Chris, Rick and Rel. "Where's Abby?" I cried with joy seeing them. "You're here!" Tom and Rick came and untied me, while Rel and Chris watched for any sign of the attacker. Once I was untied, I gave them all hugs, then turned to Tom. "They took Abby away... I don't know where she is... of if she's alive or not!" And with that, I started sobbing. Tom's never been good with girl emotions, so he just patted me on the back. "It's okay. We'll find her. I know she's alive. We just have to find her, that's all." I sniveled. "A-are y-you s-sure?" He nodded. "I'm sure. Now you really have to get yourself together if we're gonna find Abby in time." I nodded, and wiped my tears. "Okay. Let's go."

We searched the woods for a little while, and finally found her on a cliff, guarded a boy, probably one of the attackers. I turned back to the others. "Okay so what do we do now?" Tom gritted his teeth. "Kill him." I looked at him, incredulous. "What?" Rick stepped in. "She has a point. He's way too close to Abby to try to throw anything..." Chris cut him off. "...And if we get close enough to not have to throw anything, he'll see us and he can throw her over the cliff." Tom took a deep breath. "Okay. Then what do you suggest?" I took a step towards the cliff. "The only way we can do this is climb up the steep side. We'll stop at that ledge, right under the overhang, and make a plan there. Okay?" They all nodded uneasily. "um okay..." I smiled. "Great!" and we started our climb.

By the time we reached the ledge, Rick and Rel were starting to sweat a bit, Chris was grinning like a child in a theme park (he liked heights), I was feeling a little dizzy from the height, but otherwise okay, and Tom was hyperventilating (he doesn't like heights). When Rel asked him if he was okay, he said "I'm fine. I got asthma, you see..." I snorted, knowing he was lying. You see, I have asthma too, but I'm just slightly short of breath... _Say anything and I'll throw you over the cliff, _Tom threatened I smiled. _You wouldn't!_ He glared, threatening. _Course I will! _I gave him an evil look. _No you wouldn't because by the time you touch me, I'll already be shoving you over._ He rollsed his eyes. _Yeah love you too._ I smiled. _Haha! Love you more, Tom._

Rick looked from me, to Tom, then back to me. "Whoa! You guys can communicate just by making faces? Cool!" Me, Tom, and Chris started laughing. I looked at Rick. "Of course I can! Can't you?" He stiffened. "Uh... Yea!" Then he made a series of funny faces. I read his mind, turns out he was saying _Do you want to go play in the bushes with me? I'll be real gentle..._ Tom bursted out laughing, and I followed suit. "Yeah, about that, I'm gonna pass for now... Thanks for the offer though!" He made an other face, this one supposed to say _You sure? You don't know what you're missing..._ I smiled. "I'm sure." Tom was almost on the floor laughing. _HAHA! thanks for the offer! This is too funny!_ I smiled, and glanced at Chris. His expression said _I'm on to you._ So he knew I cheated and read Rick's mind... Oh well, at lest he didn't know what Rick said... Because Rick might not be on this ledge anymore! Chris wouldn't do that, of course, but you never know... If there's one thing I've learned lately it's that I can't fully trust anyone. Not in the arena, at least...

When Tom was done with his laugh-attack, we formulated a plan. It was as follows: First, we'll sneak up on the ledge. Next, Rick and Rel will surprise Dude (the name we gave to the dude guarding Abby), and tie him up. At the same time, Tom and Chris will help me untie Abby, and help her down. Then, Rick and Rel will push Dude off the cliff, or leave him there. After that, we'll go back to camp (Chris and Rel'll carry her if she can't walk) and eat.

We were about to put our plan into action, when we heard Abby laugh. Confused, we paused and listened in. Abby spoke. "I'm so happy you came and saved me!" Saved her? Then Dude spoke. "Well, I saw you, and I just couldn't leave you there! It's really a shame about your friend though... I was going to come back for her once I knew you were okay, but when I went back, she was gone. I guess I was too late." Abby started crying. "Yeah. I'm gonna miss her so much! She was supposed to win!" Dude spoke again. "What do you mean, she was supposed to win?" Abby sighed. "She is, was, Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorn's daughter. She was supposed to end it all..." I had had enough. I motioned for Chris to help me up, and found myself standing in front of Abby, who was crying over my "death" in Dude's arms. Tom came up next, followed by Chris, Rick, and Rel. I cleared my throat. "Um Abby..." She jumped off of Dude. "Caro! You're alive! Ohmygod! You're not dead!" She gave me a hug. I looked over her shoulder. "Care to introduce us to your friend?" She blushed. "Oh... That's Sam. He saved me!" I nodded. "Uhuh." Then I turned to Sam. "Hi. I'm Caro." He shook my hand excitedly. "Oh, hi Caro! I'm Sam. I'm the one that came and got Abby. What happened to you, anyway? When I came back you were gone. You must have freed yourself, no doubt. After all, you ARE Katniss' daughter..." I smiled. "Thanks. So, Sam... Would you happen to know who our attackers are?" Sam grinned. "Yup. I was one of them."


	21. oasis

I don't own the hunger games.

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><p>I froze. "What?" Tom and Chris tensed up behind me, ready to jump this dude if they need to. Sam laughed. "Don't worry! Tony's dead." Tom and Chris stepped in front of me. "And how does that make anything better?" Tom looked just about ready to punch Sam back to the time of the Ancients. Sam inched backwards, nervously. Tom kept walking forward. Before long, Sam had his back to the rock, and no place to run. "So you kidnap Caro and Abby, then take Abby away, where we can't find her, without explaining anything, then you kill your friend, and you expect us to trust you?" At this point, Tom, despite being at least 4 inches shorter, pretty scrawny, and with the general appearance of a 12 or 13 year old, was in Sam's face. Sam was freaking out. "I-it's n-not w-what it s-sounds like!" Tom gritted his teeth. "What does it sound like?" Sam swallowed. "Um... Please don't hurt me!" Tom balled his hands into fists. Oh crap. Someone's gonna get hurt.<p>

He raised a fist. _Tom! Control yourself. You're on a cliff and he's a lot bigger than you. I don't want you to get hurt._ Tom paused, giving Abby enough time to push Sam out of the way, making Tom's fist miss Sam's head, and smash into the rock with a sickening crunch, breaking off a few pieces of stone, and messing up his knuckles very badly. Tom screamed, Sam fell, Abby fell on top of him, Chris grabbed Tom so he can't kill anyone, Rick and Rel grabbed me so I don't get hurt trying to stop Tom from punching out Chris, and I fell on Rick and Rel. We all landed in a heap.

Tom was the first to get up. "What the hell, man?" Chris rubbed his shoulder, which apparently was sore from where Tom punched him. "Did you have to punch me?" Meanwhile, I slowly got up. "Ow. You guys are HARD!" Rick smiled. "You like it. Don't deny it." I rubbed my hip. "I'm not saying I don't, I'm just saying ow! You guys are really hard..." They laughed. "What can I say? The ladies love it." I winced, then mumbled, "yeah. And I probably have a bruise the shape of your abs on my back now..." Tom cut in. _Oh shut up you and I both know you love it_ I turned and saw Tom, grinning like a little boy that just caught his older sister doing something she shouldn't be doing, and was about to tell mom. I gave him The Death Glare (this incredibly scary glare that I give people that equates to about an hour of yelling, beating, and guilting). Tom instantly backed off. _Sorry just saying! Don't have to get all demonic on me..._ I smiled, and all was forgiven. I walked up to Chris. "Hey you okay?" He winced, and forced a smile. "Well, Tom's pretty strong for a little guy... But I should be fine" I smiled. "Okay. Well if anything we have cold packs at camp." Something told me he would need a cold pack... After all, I've seen the result of Tom punching someone before, and it gets ugly...

Then, we turned our attention back to Sam and Abby, who were together in a corner. Rick and Rel clapped their hands, startling them. "Okay time to split up this little love-fest now..." Rick grabbed Sam by the arm, and lifted him to his feet, then Rel grabbed Abby, who was protesting loudly. Then, Tom and Rick tied Sam's hands loosely in front of him, not enough to permanently bind him, though, just enough to slow him down enough so that he can't follow.

Then, we walked back to camp. Abby, who was slung over Rel's shoulder, was screaming, crying, kicking, and clawing almost all the way to camp. Good thing she didn't have my nails, otherwise Rel's back would have been gone before we got down the cliff! Anyways, she exhausted herself and fell asleep a few minutes before we reached camp. When we were finally there, Rel laid Abby down on her bed, then walked over to me and Tom. "Hey, can you guys put some alcohol on my back? I think I'm bleeding..." We nodded, and went to get the kit.

When we returned, Rel was sitting shirtless on a log, facing us, his insane abs in full view, and Chris was standing behind him, making a weird face, and speaking in a strangely high-pitched tone. "Well... It's really not that bad... Just a couple of scratches... I'm sure it's nothing!" We came and instructed Rel to sit on our "hospital bed," which in reality was a bed of moss, covered in a tarp, elevated on a few logs. That was when I saw the full extent on the wounds Abby inflicted. His back was raw and bleeding, with some pretty deep gashes from Abby's nails. Aside from that, he had bruises on his chest and back from Abby's kicking and punching. I sighed. _Time to get to work_.

Tom and I spend a good half hour cleaning out and bandaging Rel's back, and massaging crushed peppermint leaves into the bruises. After all was said and done, Rel looked (and probably felt) a lot better. Then, we turned to Chris, who was still massaging his shoulder. Tom laughed quietly. "C'mon, man! I didn't hit you THAT hard! Stop being a girl." Chris looked at me. "So how about that cold pack?" That was when Rel jumped in. "Yeah I really think we should take a look at it... Because we don't want it to be permanently injured... I mean I'm pretty sure you can trust Caro, like, didn't she fix your leg?" He looked from Rel, to me, then at his shoulder, before sighing, and rolling up the sleeve on his t-shirt. "Okay, but I'm sure it's nothing."

One look at that shoulder told me it was most definitely NOT nothing. It was already turning different colors, and, by the looks of it, it was completely dislocated. This was bad. Very, very bad. Tom swore and left, and Rel looked away. "Damn! That's not good!" Chris started to panic. "What?" I took a deep breath. "Relax, I can fix this. I just need you to bend your arm... no like this... Okay now lift it..." And his shoulder popped back into place. Then, I took a syringe full of healing liquid, and injected that into his shoulder to fix any torn ligaments. Then, gave him a cold pack to put on it. Tom came back after a minute. "So... I guess my punch has gotten a bit stronger..." I turned around. "Yeah just a bit... You know, you only completely dislocated his shoulder!" And with that, we all started laughing. A few apologies later, all was forgiven and forgotten.

After a quick lunch of berries and some rabbit that the boys caught, we all sat down to talk about what we were going to do about Abby and Sam. We all decided that Sam can definitely not be trusted, and can certainly not know the location of our camp. We came to the conclusion that we'll let Abby see him if she must, but only well away from camp, and she can't tell him about us, telepathy, or camp.

We told her all this when she woke up, and, well... She wasn't happy, that's for sure... Upon hearing the news, she slapped Rick in the face, and kicked Tom in the groin before Rel managed to grab her and stop her from hurting anyone else. That was when she started screaming. "Let me go, you f%#$er!" She also started trying to claw his arms, so Rel, who obviously learned his lesson from last time, grabbed her hands, crossed them across her abdomen, and held her tightly against him, forming a sort of human straightjacket. Abby lost it at that point. She was thrashing, screaming, swearing, and kicking anything she could reach; Rel's shins, us, the ground, herself, logs, rocks... Rel wrapped a leg around hers, balancing on one leg, and leaning against the tree to stop her from hurting herself. "Shhhhhhh. Calm down. You're gonna hurt yourself!" She thrashed some more, and bit her tongue. She spat out the blood.. "Why? So you can keep me from seeing Sam? So you can judge him, even though you don't know $h!t about him?" Rel held her tighter. "Stop it! You're seriously gonna hurt yourself!" She apparently didn't care, so she started yelling again. "Get off me, you pervert!" She proceeded to yell at and insult him, even telling him to go f#$ himself, that she's not his whore, and that he'd better stop "rubbing his junk on her" or she'll call rape. (that made everyone but Rel giggle like little kids) In a word, she was furious.

Rel, on the other hand, aside from looking uncomfortable from Abby's previous comment, was calm. "Abby. Listen to me, okay? If you calm down, and I can trust that you wont hurt yourself, or anyone else, I'll let you go. Okay?" She started trying to claw his hands. "No you're not! You're just a sick b$%#d who wants to 'get some,' and you sure as hell wont get that from me, so you'd better let me go right now!" Rel shifted his grip on her hands. I could already tell his hands had claw marks. Deep ones. "Look. Do think I'm taking any pleasure from this? Because if you do, you're wrong. I'd rather not be restraining anyone, much less someone 2 years younger, who I barely know, and wants nothing but to be away from me! I'm not taking any sick pleasure out of this, and I don't want to be doing this any more than you, okay? So just relax! Then, I'll let you go, we'll all sit down, talk, and discuss like regular people in stead of me having to restrain you like some animal!" Abby still didn't calm down. She even tried to hit his groin with a hip once, but it didn't work, so she went back to clawing his hands into oblivion. Meanwhile, we all sat and watched.

After a good half hour or so, Abby calmed down, then started crying. Rel turned her around and gave her a hug. "Shhh. It's okay. You'll see him tomorrow." As he patted her on the back with his bleeding hands, leaving bloody stains on the back of her shirt, she sobbed. "No... I'm so sorry! I-I didn't want to hurt you..." At that, we laughed. Rel shot us a dirty look. "It's okay! We have Caro here, and we have tons of medical supplies, so if anything, she can always patch me up, and it's just a couple flesh wounds, nothing serious!" She cried a bit more, then walked out of camp.

Chris decided he'd go look for her. I quickly bandaged Rel's hands and arms, and put some stitches in Tom's knuckles, then I caught up with him. We walked around the woods for a half hour, when we finally found her in the oasis. She was sitting at the creek, barefoot and with her toes in the water. She was smiling, staring into the water, and giggling every time a fish came and tried to nibble on her toes with it's tiny toothless jaws. In a word, she was happy, unlike how she was earlier with Rel. Chris stepped on a twig. Hearing this, Abby turned, smiling. "Sam?" She saw me, and the smile left her face. "Oh... It's you." Then, I got it. She was waiting for Sam, and, by the looks of it, he wasn't coming. She looked at me. _He's not coming, is he?_ I shook my head. "No, I don't think he is." She sighed. "I didn't think he would..."

She got up, and slowly walked along the creek, finally stopping to sit on a large flat rock. I sat beside her, as she started crying. Meanwhile, Chris stood awkwardly behind us, unsure of what to do. I smiled at him. "Sit!" I said, patting a spot on the rock. He sat down, relieved, and tried to say something to help the situation. "Look, I'm sure this Sam guy's gonna come sooner or later, and if he doesn't it's his loss, okay?" He looked at me, wondering if he said it right. I smiled and nodded supportively. Abby sniveled. "O-okay." I gave her a hug. "You don't need him! You're Abby Triv! Independent genius child extraordinaire! You don't need a man! You got yourself, and you're so strong, and smart, no man can surpass that, because let's face it! They're MEN! All they can hope to do's keep up!" Chris looked at me defiantly. "Hey! Are you insulting my gender?" Abby giggled. "Yeah I think she is."

He got up. "Oh then that does it!" He picked me up, and carried me over to the edge of the rock, which was overhanging a deep pool, and swung me over the edge. I laughed then screamed, and held onto him, as if that would change anything. He smiled, and whispered. "One... Two... And three!" At that, he threw me off the rock, and sent me falling into the pool 7 meters below, laughing and screaming the whole way down. I hit the warm water hard, and swam out of the way, while Chris jumped. I splashed him. "What was that for?" He laughed. "That's what you get for calling men dumb!"

Then, Abby's head peeked over the edge of the rock, mentally calculating the distance, human terminal velocity, and the force of impact she will have on the water, no doubt. We cheered her on. "Come on, Abby! The water's great!" She started to withdraw her head. "B-but it's high! What if I bellyflop, or hit a rock? I'll die!" Chris and I laughed at that comment. I yelled back, "c'mon! Chris threw me down here and I'm fine!" At that, I tried to shove him, but only ended up sending myself floating sideways. Abby's head re-appeared. "O-okay..." Then, it disappeared over the cliff again. I laughed. "Don't make us come up there and get you!" A second later, Abby flung herself over the edge, screaming "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" the whole way down. She landed with a huge splash.

We swam and relaxed in the oasis for a while, when I heard a noise from above. I raised a hand. "Shh! I hear something." Then, an arrow whizzed by my head and made a little splash in the water. _DIVE! follow me!_ I screamed into everyone's head. We all dove, and swam into an underwater tunnel I noticed while I was swimming. It opened up into an underwater cave, and we followed that up, surfacing in a subterranean beach, illuminated by small holes in the roof of the place. It was exactly like my cove.

I got out of the water and sat on the sandy beach. Chris followed, then finally Abby emerged, gasping for air. "Couldn't you have told us that we were going scuba diving, and maybe we should take a deep breath first?" I blinked. "We didn't go scuba diving... Just a short underwater swim..." She sighed, exasperated. "Caro, not everyone has superhuman lungs like you do!" I brought a hand to my mouth in realization. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I forgot..." I immediately felt terrible. I forgot that I could hold my breath much longer than anyone else... Oops. Chris laughed. "Well at least we're safe now, right?" I nodded. "Yeah. I don't think they can follow us here." Abby snorted. "A dolphin can't follow us here, and they can hold their breaths for 20 minutes!" I looked downward. "Oopsie?" Abby freaked out. "Oopsie? That's all you have to say? OOPSIE?" Thankfully, Chris came to my aid. "Hey at least we're in here, safe, and not out there under fire!" That shut Abby up for a while, and she just sat, disgruntled, wile I walked around the cove, smiling at the similarities.

I was sitting on the soft sand watching the water softly ripple, when Chris came and sat down next to me. "You look like you know this place." I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, there's a place like this in 4... but it's the inside of a hollow island. That's how I knew to go this way. I went to my cove almost every day back at home..." He smiled. "Your cove? I guess you must have been the only one that could hold their breath long enough to get there, eh?" I nodded and sighed, as I felt a wave of homesickness rush over me. My eyes welled up with tears, and soon, the tears were rolling down my cheeks, leaving soft, wet trails of betrayal down my face, and collecting in salty puddles on the corners of my lips, before finally rolling down the sides of my chin, and falling onto my soaked pants. I took a shaky breath. _Calm down,_ I told myself, _Just relax. Don't show him any weakness._

Too late. He looked at me, concerned. "Are you okay?" I took an other breath, this one even more shaky than the last, and the tears turned into waterfalls, cascading down my soft, blushing cheeks. I swallowed. "I'm fine.. It's just..." Ant then it all came out. "I-I just miss home so much! This place, it's so scary. We can't be safe anywhere! And I don't know who to trust, who to be careful around... I don't know if I can trust Abby, Rel... Hell, I don't even know if I can trust you!" My chest was heaving now, with shaky breaths, as I tried to keep the tears at bay, but to no avail. He hugged me. "It's okay. We're all homesick, and everyone here's just as scared. Don't worry, you can trust me."

I took a shaky breath, and relaxed into his arms. For the first time since the reaping, I felt safe. I smiled through my tears. I wished I could stay like that forever, safe and sound. I deeply wished it didn't have to be that way, that one of us didn't have to die, for the other to be able to live. I knew in my heart that I couldn't kill him. Not after everything he did for me. Abby's voice drifted through my mind. _Awwwwn! Caro's in looooove!_ I closed my eyes, ignoring her. I didn't know what this feeling was. I was pretty sure it couldn't be love, though. I barely even knew him, so how could I have fallen in love? No, I decided. It can't be love, at least not yet. That's when Tom, apparently hearing Abby, came in. _For God's sakes, Caro, j__ust admit it! You want him._ I sighed inwardly. _Oh shut up!_ I wished I could turn off my telepathy for a few minutes, because I knew this wouldn't last forever, and I wanted to enjoy it.

Soon, too soon, the moment was broken up by Abby screaming. I slid away from Chris, and we both ran to see what Abby was screaming about. She was pointing at the water, terrified. That was when I noticed what she was screaming about. The water was rising, and fast. Then I remembered that my cove did that too, every day at 6 o'clock. The water would rush out of the roof like geysers, making "the 6 o'clock geysers of district 4" I immediately knew that if we were going to get out of here, we had to act fast. I raised my voice. "Okay, listen. I know what to do." Although, in reality, I did know what to do... In theory...

My heart started pounding harder as the water passed our necks, and soon, we were forced to tread water. By the time we were halfway to the roof, my stomach was in knots. "Okay, now here's the tricky part... Just pick a hole, and as soon as you're out, move out of the way, okay?" They agreed. I smiled, building up my confidance. "Okay."

Suddenly, the water started rushing up super fast. Abby reached her hole first, and was out, then Chris climbed out. I was last, and I missed my hole by a foot. The water slammed me into the rock above. All of the air was pressed out of my chest. I was trapped down there, and nobody could help me.


	22. geysers

Suzanne Collins owns the hunger games.

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><p>I was trapped in the bubbling aquatic abyss of the cave. The water finally stopped crushing me against the rock after a terrifying 30 seconds. I Closed my eyes, and calmed down. <em>Okay,<em> I told myself. _Relax. You can get out of this. Just think. _Then it dawned on me. if I swim into the current, and ride the geyser... I could make it!

I swam down, and into the current. Before I knew it, I was rushing up a tunnel in the roof of a cave, and was airborne within a second. I finally landed in a lake, that had apparently just appeared. Strange... I stayed there for a few seconds, then the water started rushing downward. Panicking, I sprinted to shore. I made it just as the water was being sucked down the holes. I stood up. That was close. Too close. I looked around. _Now where did Chris and Abby go?_ I couldn't find them anywhere. I closed my eyes. _ABBY! Where are you? Abby? Where are you!_

Some leaves rustled beside me, and Abby's face emerged in the foliage. "Psst! Caro!" I inched towards the bush. "What is it?" She shushed me. "They're almost here! Quick, hide!" Without even asking a question, I quickly slid around the bush, crashing straight into Abby. "Ow! Watch it!" I was about to apologize, when Chris clamped a hand over both our mouths. "Shh! I think they're coming!" I fell silent, but Abby bit his hand, making him wince and pull it away. He whispered, "what was that for?" She glared at him. "Don't touch my face." I looked at her incredulously. _What the hell, Abby? _She looked at me blankly. _I like my personal space and if anyone breaches that boundary, there will be consequences._ I couldn't believe her. _What? I'm sorry to break it to you, but we're in the arena, so you're gonna have to get over it._ she glared. _Fine! But if I get violated by one of the guys around here because I "got over it..." it's on you._

I sighed. Unfortunately, rape is common in the Games, although it's never shown to the public. A lot of the male tributes take advantage of girls in bad situations, or girls willing to do anything to avoid being killed, so Abby did have a point, and a good reason to be so strong on her personal space beliefs... My train of thought was suddenly interrupted by Tom. _Where the hell are you? _That was when I realized that I had no clue where I was. _Uh... I don't know... Maybe Fil can tell you._ He laughed, and drifted out of my mind. I looked at Abby. _Hey by the way... Where are we?_ She grinned. _We're 20 minutes out from camp. I asked Fil as soon as I was out. _I smiled. Abby thinks about everything, and, in the arena, it can come in handy.

Suddenly, Chris tensed up beside us. _THEY'RE COMING!_ Without so much as a single question, we all lied flat under the branches of the bush, so we can't be noticed. Abby and I exchanged confused glances. _Since when was Chris telepathic?_ Abby shrugged. _Since now._ I smiled. _Hey Chris! If you can hear me, stick out your tongue._ He looked at me weirdly, and did it. Abby and I held back giggles. He looked from me to Abby, whispering. "What?" We both turned to him. _SHHH! _He backed off, defensively. _Sorry! You're talking wayyyy louder than I am!_ Abby rolled her eyes. I forced myself not to laugh. _I'll explain everything later, okay?_ He nodded, confused.

Then, we heard footsteps. We all froze. I peered under the bush, noticing 4 pairs of bare feet. The first pair was obviously a girl's, with chipped red nail polish still on the toes. She was almost running, and stopped every one in a while, waiting for someone to catch up, but what? The second person was probably also a girl, considering her narrow feet and waxed legs. She was walking with a certain urgency, turning around to look behind her every few steps, but whatever was behind her was a mystery to me. Finally, the mystery was solved. The next two pairs of feet were very close, suggesting one person as supporting an other. The first, with bulging calf muscles, large, wide feet, and unwaxed legs, was definitely a strong male. The last, who's gender I didn't know, was obviously in need of help. They were limping, and a trail of blood was running down their swollen ankle.

I heard a girl crying. "Ow! It really hurts! Can we please stop? I-I think I'm going to pass out." The boy replied. "No we can't. We need to get back to camp before we can do anything. Don't forget where we are." She kept on crying, and the boy finally leaned down and picked up the injured one, who I guessed was the girl crying. I caught a glimpse of his muscular arms. I guessed him to be 16 or 17, judging by the fresh tattoo of a small tree on his wrist. Many boys get small tattoos of their district symbol at age 16. I looked at Chris, who was also from 11. He probably knew this boy, maybe they were friends...

The injured girl continued crying. "Please let me stop! I need water." The boy replied again. "You know we can't stop now! We're almost there. And Sam said he'd try to get some healing stuff for you, so calm down! Someone might hear us." Nail polish girl ran back to help the boy with the injured girl. "Hey! Guess what? I heard water around here a few minutes ago, so I bet there's a water source around here!" Then I understood. They were all thirsty, one was injured, and they were in bad shape. They needed help, and fast. I stood up. Abby immediately pulled me back down under the bush. "What the hell are you doing?" I shook my head. "I-I don't know... I just felt like I had to help them!" Abby sighed. "I know, but you can't." I nodded.

The group passed, and we followed them towards the center of the arena, and we ended up at the cliff where we left Sam. Abby gasped. "He told me he was alone..." I shrugged. "Well, he lied." She started crying. "No! No, it can't be!" She took a shaky breath. "W-what else did he lie about?" I sighed. "I don't know, Abby. I really don't." She ran up to the rock. "I have to talk to him!" I ran after her. "No!" She spun around. "What do you mean, no? Look, I don't know who you think you are, but I'm gonna let you know something: Just because you're the mockingjay, and you think you're so special, doesn't mean you can tell me what I can and can't do. So, If you don't mind, I'll be on my way." With that, she pushed by me, and tried to climb the wall, tears still pouring down her cheeks.

She managed to climb about 5 feet, when her foot slipped, and she fell. Chris lunged forward and caught her, her head 2 inches away from hitting the rock. She shrugged him off. "Don't touch me. I got it." I rolled my eyes. "Abby, we both know that if he didn't catch you, your head would have smashed on that rock like a watermelon." She shuddered imagining that scene. "Well then thanks I guess..." He smiled. "You're welcome. Now can we go back to camp?" I nodded. "Yeah, I think that's a good idea. I don't know about you, but it's getting dark, and the others are probably looking for us." _And I'm terrified of the dark_, I silently added. Abby groaned. "Okay. We'll go back. I'll talk to him tomorrow."

While we were on our way back, my heartbeat accelerated, and my breathing got quicker and shallower. I started to panic. It was dark. Too dark. The shadows were closing in... I couldn't see anymore. I shivered in fear. I jumped and gasped when Chris' arm brushed past mine. He patted my back. "Relax. It's just me." I sighed in relief. "S-sorry... I-I'm scared of the dark." He laughed to himself. "So you're telling me that Caro, the mockingjay, the one that's supposed to save the world, is afraid of the dark?" I nodded, bug-eyed, trying to see some light in the never-ending blackness. "Yeah. I know it sounds stupid, but..." He laughed. "It's not stupid!" I swallowed. I was shaking now. Soon, I would lose control and go into a nervous breakdown unless I could see light soon. _Hey calm down! Don't be scared, you got big strong Chris to protect you!_ That was Tom. I paused my panic for a second to roll my eyes. _Shut up, Tom._ He really should stop listening in on my private thoughts...

The panic set in again. "Can.. Can we walk faster please?" Abby was all for it, and Chris didn't say anything against it, so before we knew it, we were sprinting blindly through the forest, finally stumbling on our camp. I was almost crying with relief when I saw Rick, Rel, and Tom sitting around a fire. I walked towards the fire pit, and sat down on a long-ish log, basking in the warm light. Rel looked across the fire to me. "Want some fish?" I nodded, remembering that I was starving. He passed me what looked like a fish-shaped piece of charcoal on a stick. I looked at it, and picked at the blackened skin, hoping the rest of it wasn't in the same state. Suddenly, the skin slid off, leaving me with a black sleeve of skin in one hand, and a perfectly cooked, skinless fish in the other. I took a tentative bite. It was the best fish I'd ever tasted. I ate the whole thing, leaving only the guts, bones and head. I thanked Rel, who shook his head. "Don't look at me! Tom caught all these fish, and Rick cooked it. I'm just taking all the credit." I laughed. "Oh! Well then in that case... Thanks guys!"

That was when Chris and Abby came up to the fire. Abby sat between Rick and I, and Chris sat down on the log beside me. "This enough light for you?" I smiled at him and nodded. "Yeah, unless I'm alone, then I would need sunlight." He laughed. "Well then we'll just have to make sure you're never alone at night." I didn't exactly understand what he meant, but I had a general idea, and that was enough to make me blush deeply. Tom grinned at me from across the fire. _I know you're blushing because you want it. Just tell him already!_ I glared across the fire. _No. And if you so much as say a word, I swear I'll claw you to shreds._ He smiled. _Love you too_ I stared into the fire, deep in thought. _Is tom right? Do I really want him? No. Can't be! It's the games. I'm just scared and want protection... like from this strong, sweet guy... Okay, so he's really hot, but so are Rel, and rick! So why Chris? Can't be love, right? No, can't! I already decided on that..._

That was when I felt someone looking at me. I looked around the fire. Everyone was staring into the fire, hypnotized by the flames. I finally turned my head and looked at Chris, who was looking at me. We made eye contact, and after a second, I looked down, blushing. He smiled. Not wanting to appear to be looking at his groin, I looked around, and, in fear of seeing something... I didn't know what, but I didn't want to see it. I finally opted to look at the fire, but I still felt his warm gaze on me for a minute or so, 'till he started to gaze into the flames. I watched the deliciousness of the flames as they licked the dried, blackened wood. The beauty of the flames destroying the broken wood. I smiled, thinking about how I'm gonna be like a fire, destroying capitol, and making something beautiful; freedom.

The fire was starting to die out, so we retreated to our beds, only to find a huge camping tent, complete with foam mats, and little lights, and with a tiny silver parachute attached to the to corner. We thanked Fil, and went inside. There was space for 3 people in the tent. Rick and Rel insisted that the ladies sleep in the tent. Abby and I didn't argue. At this point, there was one spot, and 4 guys, left. Tom immediately volunteered to stand guard, and Rick decided he'll help Tom guard camp. Now it was down to Rel and Chris. Tom suggested Chris should sleep in the tent and protect the girls (I mentally kicked him), when Rick said that Rel, being bigger and stronger than Chris, would be a better candidate for such a job. Chris and Rel said they both didn't mind either way, Abby agreed, and Tom reluctantly nodded. Now, everyone's eyes were on me. I swallowed, and said, "I think you're right."

With that, Rel grabbed his knife, and we set of towards the tent. Chris told me that he'll be guarding the tent from outside, and not to worry. This relaxed me and made me smile. Then, we set up our beds in the tent. Rel set up his bed by the door, so that no one can come in without him knowing. I set my bed up by the wall of the tent, perpendicular to Rel. Abby's bed was set up in the center of the tent. At first, it was perpendicular to Rel, like me, but, noticing the very close proximity her pillow was to Rel's groin area, she rotated her bed, so she was sleeping diagonally across the center of the tent. Once we were all settled down, Rel turned off every light except for one tiny glass globe in the shape of a cat sleeping, with a blue nightcap. He asked me if it was too dark, and I simply replied, "it's perfect."

I drifted off to sleep within minutes.

In the middle of the night, around 3 am, I woke with a start. Something was going to happen, I could feel it. It felt like even the air was electrified. I woke up Rel.


	23. Darkness

Hunger games trilogy creds: Suzanne Collins

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><p>I nudged Abby awake. "Do you hear that?" She shook her head. I shook Rel awake. He groaned and rolled over, clutching his knife. "What?" I felt kind of stupid, realizing what I was about to say. "I.. uh.. Well..." He sat up. He was just wearing some loose shorts, no shirt. <em>God is he hot<em>, I thought. He stretched and rubbed his eyes. "Come on, just say it." I took a deep breath. "I felt something." He cocked his head to one side. "You FELT something?" I nodded. He sighed. "What KIND of something?" I blushed. "I know it sounds stupid, but I felt like, well I still feel it, but anyway, I feel like something really bad is going to happen, and the feelings getting worse and worse." I swallowed. "Rel, I'm scared." He sighed. "Okay. I'll go check it out." Without thinking, I touched his arm. "Don't go!" He smiled. "Okay. Well then how do you suggest I help?" I smiled back. "Stay with us and make sure that thing doesn't get in our tent." He looked at me, confused. "Then how am I going to know what's out there?" I laughed to myself. "Hold on." _Hey Tom can you tell Rick to come over here?_ he groaned. _You woke me up._ Jeez. _Just tell him!_ He sighed. _Okay!_ There was a pause, then _He's on his way._ I looked back at Rel. "Rick's on his way." He looked at me, confused. "You're one strange girl, you know that?" I grinned. "I know."

Rick's head poked through the door. "Tom said you ladies needed me." He laughed, and stepped into the tent. "What, did you not want to share Rel? Not enough of him to go around?" Rel blushed. "It's not that, Rick. Caro felt something." Rick looked at me, then back at Rel, laughing. "That means you've done something right!" I rolled my eyes. "Not THAT kind of feeling! Jeez, Rick!" He looked back at Rel. "So you DO need my help! Well as far as help goes, I'm always glad to give it to a pretty girl like you!" I swatted at his leg playfully. "Shut up! This is serious!" He took a deep breath, and relaxed. "Okay. What do you want to feel?" I facepalm-ed "I had a feeling that something really bad was going to happen, and it's getting worse. I can almost feel it coming closer."

Rick's childish grin left his face. "What kind of bad feeling?" I took a deep breath, happy that he was taking things seriously and had stopped making suggestive implications... "Well, you now that feeling in your gut that you get when something very bad's about to happen?" They all shook their heads. I continued. "Well its sort of like a feeling of dread, but you don't know what''s causing it. And right now, it's getting worse and worse. I can almost feel whatever it is coming closer..." There was silence, as they tried to register what I said. Rick broke the silence. "Well I'm gonna go check out what this 'dark force' is..." And with that, he left. Abby let out a sigh. She was beet red from what Rick said. I withheld my laughter. _Wow, some people really can't take a joke... _Abby glared at me _shut up!_

I smiled. "There. That's how you're gonna know what's out there." Rel watched me as I sat back down on my bed. Noticing him staring at me, I turned around. "Yea?" He was looking at me in awe. "How did you do that?" I blushed. "I have my ways." "Teach me," he said, straight-faced. I couldn't help myself. I started to laugh. He looked at me strangely. "What's so funny?" I giggled. "Well... I've never taught anyone..." He smiled. "Please? I'll do ANYTHING!" _ANYTHING anything?_ I thought. "Fine. I'll try, but it won't make any sense, just saying..." I sent random messages. _Bite your tongue. rub your nose._

He bit on his tongue and rubbed his nose. "Okay...?" I grinned. He laughed. "What?" I giggled. "You already did it!" He froze. "What do you mean? I didn't do anything!" _Are you sure?_ He laughed. "of course I'm sure!" I gave him a look. "You just did it again!" He shook his head. "What?" I smiled. _How do you hear me right now?_ He replied. "You're talking!" I chuckled. _Am I? Look at my mouth. Am I really talking?_ He became wide-eyed. "How did you do that?" I giggled. "I have no idea!" _Can she read what I'm thinking?_ He thought. I smiled. "Yup." He smiled. "So let me get this straight... You can read minds, and put ideas in peoples' heads?" I nodded. He grinned. "Thats awesome! So you can make people do stuff, right?" I blushed. "Yeah... Why?" He grinned, mischievously. "Well then can you do me a favor?"

I giggled. "What kind of favor?" His eyes twinkled. "Well..." I laughed. "Spit it out!" He blushed. "Wait, first I want proof!" I was still laughing. "What proof?" he laughed. "figure it out!" I sighed, and searched his mind, finally finding my answer. "You want proof that I can control people?" He nodded. "Yup." I sighed. "Okay what do you want me to do?" He looked around, his eyes finally resting on Abby, who was fast asleep. "Did you know that Abby's terrified of heights?" I nodded, and he continued. "...So the last thing she'll do's climb a tree, right?" I nodded. "Uhuh..." He grinned. "... And there's a tree right there..." I smiled. "I'm listening..." He got this weird glint in his eyes. "So... Can you make her climb it?"

I smiled. "Hey, slow down! I'm not gonna risk Abby falling and hurting herself!" He smiled. "You sure?" I nodded. "Pretty sure, yeah." He gave me a look that made me blush. "You sure there isn't anything I can do to change your mind?" I giggled. "What do you mean?" He shifted towards me. Maybe a half inch, but I sure noticed it. "You know what I mean." I bit my lip. Did he really have to do this? "No... What do you mean?" He laughed to himself. _Damn it, why doesn't he just put a shirt on already?_ I couldn't believe I just thought that. He gave me that look again. "You sure you don't have any ideas?" I decided to play a little mind game with him. I'm good at mind games. "Well... What did you have in mind?" I played with a strand of hair and gently bit my lip. The look intensified. "Whatever you want." I giggled. He started coming closer. I leaned forward. "Anything at all?" We were a few inches apart. He smiled. "You bet. Just tell me what you want."

I smiled. _Put on Abby's socks._ He did. _Now... make a fish face!_ When I stopped feeding him ideas, he was wearing Abby's socks on his hands, his shirt on his head like a hat, and he was doing yoga. He noticed his weird getup. "What... What's going on?" I smiled. "That enough proof?" His expression was best described as a question mark. "Uh Yeah... So, did we...?" I shook my head. "No." He scrunched his eyebrows. "Really? Not even..." I laughed. "No, not even that." He cocked his head to one side. "Really? You sure?" I laughed again. "I'm sure." He looked down at himself. "And... How did I get like this?" I smiled, making him grin. "You did that part, didn't you?" I laughed. "Nope. I just sat and watched while you did really stupid stuff." His face dropped. "Oh."

I was about to reply, when suddenly I was hit by a wave of nauseating uneasiness. He noticed my discomfort, and his face immediately turned serious. He reached forward and touched my hand. A small bit of comfort. "What's wrong?" I closed my eyes. "It's back... And worse. I don't know what it is, but it's really close." He took a deep breath, assembling his courage. "Okay. What do you want me to do?" I opened my eyes and looked up at him. "Stay with me." I couldn't believe I said that. Every practical brain cell I had was telling me that it made more sense for him to go tell the others, but something made me tell him to stay. He nodded. "Okay. Do you want me to wake up Abby?" I shook my head. "No. If we do, she'll freak out, and right now, we can't have that." He nodded. "Okay."

Then, Tom poked his head in the tent. "You guys okay? I thought I heard something..." I quickly filled him in on the situation. "...So can you guys go check it out?" He nodded. "C'mon, Rel. You heard her." Rel shifted uneasily. "Um... I'm supposed to stay..." I cut him off. "I told him to stay. We need someone with us in case something does come." Tom laughed. _What about mr Wonderful? He's right outside, you know._ I rolled my eyes. _It's not what it looks like! Abby and I are unarmed, so if a really strong dude decides to attack us, we're screwed!_ "I'm unarmed and Abby's asleep, so we could use a bodyguard." I shrugged. "You know, insurance." Tom rolled his eyes. "Alright then... I'll go get Rick and Chris. We'll let you know as soon as we find out what it is, okay?" I nodded. "Okay."

Reassured that the guys'll find whatever it is that's giving me that strange feeling, I settled back under my cotton sheet, and closed my eyes. I slept for about an hour, when I was woken up by Tom. "Caro! Wake up!" I looked around the tent. Tom was standing over me, nudging me awake with his foot, Rel was in the corner, comforting Abby, who was freaking out, and Chris was in the other corner, looking through a first aid kit. Rick was slumped beside him, his face expressing terror and pain. I sat up. "What's going on?" Chris looked up from the kit. "Oh good, you're awake." I got up and rubbed my eyes. "Uh yeah. Why? What's up?" Rel, Tom, and Chris all exchanged nervous glances. "Well..." "I-I'm not sure how to say this..." "Well.. On the bright side..." "...We found out what was bothering you..." "...Well, Rick did..." "...And now he's..." "...Well..." "...See for yourself, I guess..." I stretched and yawned. "Okay, just tell me simply. What or who is it, how many are there, how big are they, and what happened?" Rel took a deep breath. "Well... We don't know exactly what it is, only Rick knows that, but what happened was we decided we'd split up for a bit, you know, to find this thing faster. Anyway, we were maybe 2 kilometers from camp, when Rick screamed, and something ran off into the bushes, and Rick was there bleeding like hell, and yeah." I got up. "Okay. Scootch over and pass me that first aid kit." I squatted beside Rick. His arm looked like it was raked by razor blades.

He looked at me. "Is... Is it as b-bad as it l-looks?" I bit my lip. "Well, first... What happened?" He looked at me, terrified. "W-well... I was walking... A-and... I heard something..." He started shaking. "So.. I turned around... and it attacked me!" I nodded supportively. "What did?" He screamed. "It was so big!" He started shaking and sweating, before passing out because of the shock. I bandaged and stitched his arm, and laid him down in my bed. Rel looked at me like I was crazy. "Well then, where are you gonna sleep?" I got up. "I'm not." They all looked at me in shock, but i continued talking. "It only makes sense, because I'm the one that has had the most sleep and he's had the least, so I'm letting him sleep for the night. We all know that he's in no shape to guard the camp, and, just because I'm a girl, and happen to be the mockingjay, doesn't mean you have to protect me, so please stop with the protecting. I'm a big girl and I can protect myself." Nobody spoke for a minute, while everyone let what I said set in. Tom finally broke the silence. "She's right, you know. We all gotta stop acting like her bodyguards, because, you know, she'd probably make a better guard than all of us combined!" The rest of the guys blinked, speechless. Abby crawled into bed and went to sleep. Rel finally broke the silence. "Well, as much as it makes sense, you'll be a lot safer in here, and you know what guys do to girls that find themselves all alone in the arena..." I sighed, exasperated. "I know, I know... They rape 'em, but, like I said, I can protect myself! Just let me try!" Rel sighed, and turned to Chris. "What do you think?" He shrugged. "Well, I think that if we don't let her, she'll do whatever she wants anyway, so we might as well cooperate..." I grinned. "Thank you!" Then I turned to Rel. "So, if you don't mind, We'll be on our way." He got up. "What do you mean? I'm not coming?" I giggled. "We still need someone to guard the injured!" He sighed. "Alright... Well call if there's anything..." I grinned. "Okay! Well I'll see you in the morning!"

With that, I walked out of the tent, and was immediately engulfed by an overwhelming darkness.

My heartbeat quickened.


	24. Beast

I don't own the hunger games trilogy.

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><p>I opened my eyes wide, in hopes of letting any light in, but to no avail. There was absolutely no light in the entire forest. The sky was starless, and without a moon. We couldn't risk using any lights or torches, knowing we weren't alone in these woods. My heart was racing, almost pounding itself out of my chest. My breathing was fast and shallow. My palms were damp with cold sweat, and it felt like someone was pouring icy water down my spine. Every single nerve in my body was tingling, and my senses of hearing, touch, taste, and smell were all on high gear. I swallowed.<p>

I could hear Tom and Chris walking beside me. Their presence was my only source of comfort in the cold, silent darkness. For a while, all I could hear was our breathing, our footsteps, muffled by the decomposing leaves and moss of the forest floor, and the very faint thump...thump...thump of my own heartbeat. I put a hand on the left side of my chest, just under the collarbone, and was comforted by the steadiness of my heart, slowly beating against my ribs. The one thing that has never changed, and will never change, as long as I live.

That was when I noticed a coldness sweep over and engulf me, but not a normal coldness. This one was deeper, the kind of coldness that goes right to the bone and makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, and your whole body explode in goosebumps. The kind of coldness you feel in your gut, like a rock in your stomach, when you know something's very wrong, rather than on your skin. In reality, the temperature probably never changed, and either way, I'm not affected by the cold, but this coldness was different. I shivered, and my breathe left me. Suddenly, I could barely breathe, I was trembling, and my very bones felt like they were made of ice. I stopped walking, grabbing Tom and Chris' hands. "Something's not right."

Tom sighed inwardly. _What is it? _I could tell that he would rather not be holding my hand, like we were in kindergarden, but that's less important now. I had a really bad feeling, and it was not about to go away. Chris squeezed my hand, whispering. "What's wrong?" I took a shaky breath. "I-I don't know... But something's coming. Something really bad." I couldn't see it, but somewhere in the darkness, I knew that Chris nodded. He squeezed my hand a little harder. "Well, we'll get through it. I'm sure we will..." Tom dug his short, but sharp fingernails into my left hand. _Shut up! Something's coming._ Tom kicked Chris' leg around my back, and hissed, "something's coming!" They both took a step forward. Without thinking, I let go of their hands and raised mine, putting them on their chests, just below their necks. I closed my eyes, and searched the forest for someone else.

Before I knew it, I was in Rel's mind, seeing through his eyes. Chris and tom gasped, and I knew that they could see too. I checked on Abby and Rick (they were both asleep), then I searched for something else... Soon, I was in someone else's head, seeing through their eyes, but we couldn't see much, though, because their eyesight was very poor. The person looked around. We saw 3 blurry blobs ahead. They were all lined up in a row. The farthest one was smaller, the one in the middle was a bit out of line, and the closest one was darker, and bigger. I gasped. The three blobs were us. We were looking through the eyes of our attacker. I heard a low growl through this person's ears, and I knew it was their stomach. My heart clenched. This person had no chance.

Suddenly, the attacker looked down, and we all saw paws. Big, black ones, with huge, razor-sharp claws, and they were stained by blood. Human blood. That was when Chris, Tom, and I realized that this was not a person, but a beast. I could feel their hearts racing under my hands. They weren't the only ones that were worried. I could sense Rel's uneasiness from here. Chris, Tom, and I slowly backed away from the beast, while it was busy licking the blood off of it's paws. When it finally looked up, we were all in the tent, blinded by the flickering flame on the candle in the middle of the tent.

Rel stood up as we came in. "So, did you guys find what's out there?" Tom and Chris looked at each other, then me, before answering. "Well..." "You could say that..." "In a sense... we did..." "Find it..." Rel looked confused, to so he turned to me. "What did you do?" I blushed. "Nothing..." Tom snorted. Chris let out a laugh. Rel turned back to Chris. "What did she do this time?" He raised both hands. "Hey don't ask me! I dunno!" Rel's gaze moved to Tom. "Alright, well then Tom, can you tell us?" He laughed a bit, then said, "I'm not even sure... She just stopped n put her hands on us..." Rel laughed, and gave me a look that really made me blush. "Not THAT way! Jeez! All I did was let them see what I was seeing! I don't get why this is such a big deal!" Rel turned serious. "...And what exactly did you see?" I smiled. "I saw inside your head, through your eyes-" he cut me off. "What?" I giggled. "Relax! They didn't see, and I won't tell!" He sighed in relief. "Okay... And what else did you see?" I smiled. "Well... I know its a black, furry beast with huge sharp claws, it sees blurry, it's around our camp, and it's hungry..."

Rel's jaw dropped, and Rick woke up, screaming. "GET AWAY! GET AWAY!" He sat up, panting and sweating. I sat beside him. "Shhhhhhh. It's okay. You're safe now." He looked at me, confused. "Wha-what's going on?" He looked at his arm. The blood was starting to show through the bandages. He screamed again. "What is that? What happened to me? What was that THING?" That was when it clicked in my head. The blood I saw on the beast's claws was Rick's. I rested a hand on his back, soothing him. "You got scratched. Don't worry, you'll be fine." He nodded, and I continued. "Now, I know you're shaken up by this, but you have to tell me something, okay?" He nodded again, and I smiled. "Okay. Tell me truthfully... Did you see this beast? He turned white. "Y-y-yeah... I-it's so big..."

We chatted for a while, then Tom, Chris and I left the tent to guard the camp. We all waited a few minutes for our eyes to adjust to the dark, then I followed Tom to a spot by the tree trunk that had been covered with layers of moss and cloth, in an attempt to make it a more comfortable place to sit. I sat down, cringing at the unexpected hardness of the botched moss cushion. I decided that I'll re-do it later. Meanwhile, Chris was walking around the perimeter of our camp. Tom walked over to me, stopping only when his feet were inches away from me. From my seated position, he looked like a giant, towering over me. Anyone else would be intimidated by him, but not me. I still saw him as the little brother I never had. He laughed. "Tell me, Caro... How exactly did you plan on protecting the camp with no weapons?" I blushed. "Oh. Right. The weapons..." I looked around. "Where are they, anyway?" He laughed, and offered me a hand to help me up. I took it. An other thing about Tom: He's tiny. Like, skinny and short, no muscle to be had anywhere, but he's stronger than a horse. Anyway, he helped me up, then turned to the tree, and looked up into the branches. He seemed to have finally found what he was looking for, and started jumping, and grabbing for a low branch. He missed about 5 times, before he gave up.

Just then, Chris walked around the trunk. "Need some help, there?" Tom ignored him, and turned back to the tree, took one last jump, and a mighty swing for the branch, missed by inches, and landed on his backside with a dull thud, swearing and cursing. Chris and I tried our hardest not to laugh, as he got up, and brushed the moss off of his butt. He looked at us, angrily. "Why don't you guys shut up and help me?" I laughed some more, while Chris said, "step aside, and let the pro work." At that, he climbed up the tree trunk with ease, and, before Tom could come up with a comeback, he was tossing down Tom's net, my bow, arrows, and some knives and daggers, then he climbed down, with an axe, crossbow, more arrows, some vials of poison, and a couple of apples (compliments of district 11). He passed me the bow, arrows, and daggers. Tom snatched up the net and knife before Chris could pass anything to him. I laughed. "Okay, so what now?" Tom turned to me. "You... Stay here and keep an eye out for anything weird. I'll go walk around the perimeter." I nodded. "What about Chris?" He glanced at him through the corner of his eye. "He stays with you." _You're welcome_, he added, silently. I nodded, and added _Shut up!_ Tom winked at me, and left. _You know you wana._

Ignoring Tom's last remark, I turned to Chris. "So... What now?" He looked down at me. "Depends... How good of a climber are you?" I looked up at the branches in the tree. "You mean... We're going up there?" He nodded, smiling. "It's the best vantage point." I nodded, nervous. I've never liked heights, but if I was going to prove myself to these guys, I had to do it. He was halfway up the trunk, when he paused. "Oh sorry. Where are my manners? Want a boost?" I laughed, and shook my head, then I jumped as high as I could, grabbed a low-hanging branch, and swung myself onto it. "I got it." He raised his eyebrows, and climbed up the trunk to meet me. "That's good... But what are you going to do from here? There's no branches close enough to climb onto." I gave him a sideways glance. "Wana bet?" Then, I stood up carefully, and jumped.

I was sailing through empty air for a second, before I was able to reach the next branch. Then, I swung up onto that, and turned around to face Chris. "...And you were saying?" He sighed, laughing a bit. "Okay... You're good. I'll give you that, but can you do it again?" I smiled. _Challenge accepted, _and looked for the next branch. I leapt, swinging on the next branch, then swinging from that to an other, finally swinging myself onto a third, in the denser part of the tree. Chris climbed up to where I was sitting, my face glowing with victorious confidence. He laughed. "You're good! Where did you learn that?" I smiled. "I don't know... I just did it!" He smiled. "Okay... Well follow me." I followed him up an other 3 feet or so, and onto a spot in the tree with that had a ton of branches in one spot, so we were hidden from anyone under us, but it was very easy to see the camp below.

There was a very large roap net suspended under the branches. He leapt down from the branches, landing in the middle of it. "This," he said, gesturing toward the camp below, "is the best view you'll find around here." He turned back to me. "Wana check it out?" I hesitated, then stepped down onto the net. It was surprisingly stable, thankfully, and really comfy. I sat down. The net was in the shape of a huge horseshoe, that encircled most of the tree, and It was stretched between the trunk and maybe 20 or more thick branches. It had also been dyed green and brown, and had leaves and twigs woven into the netting. Chris was lying on his back, with one leg bent, and his head resting on his hands. He propped himself on an elbow. "Cool, right?" I nodded. He continued. "Your friend Fil sent it for me." I smiled. "That's cool!"

Just then, Fil came into my head. _You're welcome, by the way..._ I blushed a bit. Tom and Fil seem to be thinking that Chris and I are just going to jump on each other or something. Jeez do they know us at all? Tom came in. _Of course we know you, and that's why we know what you wana do!_ I ignored them. Chris sat up. "What's wrong?" I shook my head. "Nothing... Just Tom and Fil messing with my brain again..." _Just admit it. You wana mess with him._ I mentally sent Tom the middle finger, and smiled at Chris. "Nothing big, they're just teasing." He laughed. "You know, sometimes I wish I could hear what's going on in there!" _No,_ Tom, Fil, and I thought_ you don't_. (we did a mental high five right there) I smiled. "Well... If you want, I could show you..." He looked at me, confused. "What do you mean?" I smiled. "I mean that I could show you. Like I did before." His expression changed from confusion to awe. "That was you?" I smiled. "Yup!" He grinned. "That's amazing!" I blushed. "You really think so?" He nodded. "Yeah"

I looked down, at the camp below. Tom was walking around and around, slowly, deliberately, stopping to check all around himself at every step. I looked back up at Chris. "Can they see us?" He shook his head. "Nope. To them, we're just an other spot of leaves in the trees. Up here, we're invisible!" I smiled. "That why you brought me here?" He opened his mouth to protest, but I cut him off. "And be honest!" He sighed. "Well... It IS really hard to get some alone time around here..." I smiled. "I KNEW it!" He rolled his eyes, and let himself fall onto his back, and lay there for a bit. Sighing, I lay down on my stomach a few feet away from him, and watched the forest below, searching for anything out of the ordinary. He crawled over and lay down near me, his head right next to mine. "So, watcha looking at?" My gaze didn't shift. "I'm watching out for Tom... Remember? That was our job." He sighed. "Okay, but what's the point of lyin' there, when you could just do that super cool voodoo thingy with your brain? You'll find the beast way earlier, and we'll have some time to relax." I sighed. "Okay. Wana see too?"

He nodded, so before long, we were sitting, holding each other's hands, with our eyes closed. I generated a mental image of the camp. I was flying around it in my head. First, I located all of the heartbeats, that all pulsed around everyone like an aura, each in a different color. Tom's was a cold, deep, yet pale, blue, matching his eyes. Rel's was a brilliant green, demonstrating his strength. Rick's was the turquoise of a tropical ocean, reflecting how he can sweep a girl away, take her to a happy place. Abby's was a very neutral, very dull purple, showing the dullness of her safe life, always within the rules, the lines, the boundaries... Mine, on the other hand, was a firey red and orange, probably from my mockingjay blood, and, finally, Chris' was a calming brown, the color of a cappuccino. I filled Chris in on this, then I identified a pulse that I didn't recognize. It was a very dark red, almost black. I didn't even have to look to know that it was the beast. I whispered. "It's there!"

I broke away from Chris, then sent a quick note to Tom. _I see it! It's coming towards you..._ Then, it jumped.


	25. The plan

okay you're probably just skipping this part anyway, so yeah. Hello to those who read this bit and, same as usual, I don't own the hunger games trilogy.

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><p>All I could do was watch through my mind's eye, as the beast jumped out of the bushes, hurtling toward Tom. All he could do was cover himself with the golden net, before it landed on him. Without thinking, I raised my bow. I took a half second to aim, and then I let the arrow fly. It hit the beast in the shoulder, distracting it as it landed, and giving Tom enough time to roll out from under it, and send a knife into it's heart. It screamed, then fell. I watched as it's pulse got fainter and slower, until it finally stopped, and the dark red light came out of it's body, and floated upwards, like ribbons of blood in water, before it dissolved into the air. Tom looked up, confused. I laughed to myself. <em>It was me, genius.<em> He smiled. _Thanks. I owe you one. _I nodded.

That was when I realized my eyes were still closed. I opened them, and noticed someone looking at me. I lowered my bow, and turned, meeting Chris' eye. He had his crossbow in his hand, still loaded. He smiled and shook his head. "You know... Sometimes I think you can't possibly impress me more with your mad skills, then you do something like this!" I smiled, then realized that I had just taken my bow out of the holster on my back, opened my quiver, gotten an arrow out, loaded the bow, aimed, and shot, all in milliseconds. I bit my lower lip. It was a nervous twitch that I've had since I was a baby. Some kids sucked their thumbs when they were nervous, some bit their fingernails. I bite my lip. It has often been misinterpreted as being a seductive gesture, but it isn't. Chris, however, didn't know that. He smiled. "You know, if you keep making faces like that, someone might get the wrong idea!" I blushed.

Just then, Tom barged into my head, again. _Or maybe he'll get the right idea._ I sent him the mental middle finger again, and he came back with a _Hey! I'm just telling the truth! Anyway, I guess I can't control you, so... _I cut him off. _No, you can't. _Ignoring me, he continued. _..so just use protection, or I'll be forced to kill him..._ I blushed very deeply. _Shut up! I just met him! How could you say_ that? He grinned below. _I can because I know what you're thinking. _That's it. I decided I'd go down there and slap Tom in the face.

I got up, and climbed down. "Hey Tom!" He turned around. I raised a hand to slap him, but I realized that he might die any second, and I didn't want the last thing I ever did to him to be slapping him. He turned around, and smiled. "Hey! Thanks, by the way..." I smiled, and gave him a hug. He paused, then hugged me back. I stepped back and said, "I'm sorry, I just..." I trailed off, not knowing what to say. He smiled. "Just admit it. You couldn't live without me!" I realized that he had a point. "Hey! you're making me sound like some desperately in love girl in a bad love story!" He grinned. "But you didn't deny it." I rolled my eyes. "Whatever!" He laughed. "Whatcha doin' here, anyway?" I shrugged. "Well, I felt like walking around with you, so... Here I am!" He started walking. "Well, then... Follow me, I guess." I didn't move. He turned around. "So, you coming, or what?" I rolled my eyes. "Won't it be so much better if we split up? We'll cover more land faster that way..." He sighed. "Fine... You walk that way, I"ll walk this way, we'll meet up in the middle, and we'll talk a bit, then we'll walk again... Work for you?" I nodded. "Yeah!"

I did my first walkabout, and nothing happened. I met back up with Tom, who reported that his walk wasn't much different. I continued, and walked around the second half of the perimeter, checking around myself at every step, looking for anything odd in the bushes. I was maybe a quarter of the way around, when I heard cannons; The first cannons in days. The sky lit up, and I watched, as maybe 40 people died, some mauled by the beast that we had just killed, others died by the hand of allies, some dead of starvation, and some even committed suicide, by jumping into the boiling rivers. I swallowed back tears, as I watched person upon person, well, really they're children, died. A single tear rolled down my cheek. Charwill. The people we ambushed. The people that ambushed us. The girl with the broken ankle. 20 or so other kids I recognized from the start of the games. A handful of 12-year-olds. A super hot 16-year-old.

Now, I rarely get mad, but when I do, God help whoever that anger is directed towards. At the sight of all those kids my age dying, I was so mad, I couldn't control myself, and with nobody near to take it out on or vent with, I exploded. I screamed and kicked the dirt beneath me. I fell to the floor, and picked up anything I could reach: Knives, rocks, leaves, twigs, handfuls of dirt, and threw it. I pounded on the ground and screamed and kicked and thrashed. I slowed down and my screaming ceased, then started to sob, murmering. "It's all just so pointless..." My murmers turned to screams "POINTLESS! IT'S ALL JUST POINTLESS MURDERS!" Then, I really cried. I cried hysterically for the mothers and families of the children that had died; all of the people that will be missing them, as well as the family and friends of the other 30 that will die. I cried for all of the waste of life these games have been causing for a whole century, that's 2,368 innocent children! (math's always been a strong point of mine...)

I cried for an other 20 minutes, or more, when Tom came to my side, and comforted me. It was only when I stopped sobbing hysterically that I realized my position, and my mission. My mom was the mockingjay. She almost singlehandedly wiped out the entire capitol. I am her daughter. I realized then what I had to do. I had to pick up where my mom left off, and make sure that the 100th hunger games is the last. I had to save these innocent children from being killed, and I had to save our future children from knowing the horror that is the hunger games. I had to end this all, and fast, before more kids died. Tom stopped patting me on the back. "Are you okay now?" I nodded, my gaze empty. "It has to stop." He looked at me, confused. "What?" I looked at him. "Everyone has a reason to be on this planet, and I think that mine is to end this... This insanity. My mom almost did it, you know, and now I have to finish what she started."

He looked at me sadly. "Caro, you're gonna get killed!" I swallowed, trying to be brave, when, in reality, I was scared senseless. "Well, then that's the price. After all, what does one more life change, among over 2,000, if it means that an other 3,000 can live?" His lower lip started to tremor, and his eyes welled up. He shook his head. "No. This is suicide. I can't let you do this, Caro!" An other tear rolled down my cheek. "I know it is, but you can't stop me. I have to do this, Tom, if not for you, or me, or everyone still alive in here, for those that died. They were kids, Tom. Children! They never even had a chance. I know that you know how wrong it is, and that it has to end, so let me end this." A tear escaped Tom's eye. He wiped it away quickly. "I know, Caro. It's terrible, but you'll die, and I can't just sit here and let you do this." I sniffed. "It's not your decision to make, Tom, it's mine, and you can't stop me." My voice cracked. A huge lump was forming in my throat. He sighed. "Then let me help you." I looked at him, incredulously. "What? No! You can't! I-I can't let you!" He took a deep breath. "Caro! Think, for once! You can't do this alone, and I can't sit here while you go off and die, so if you won't let me stop you, at least let me help you." An other tear rolled down my cheek. "B-but... You'll die, Tom! I can't let you die!" He smiled, his eyes full of tears. "And I can't let you die. Just let me help you. That way, we have a better chance of surviving this whole thing, and if we do die... Well at least we'll die together!" I closed my eyes, and hugged him again, sobbing on his narrow shoulder.

After a little bit, I wiped my eyes, sniffed, and nodded. "Okay. I'll let you help me." Tom smiled, as a second tear rolled down his cheek. "Then I promise that I'll do whatever I can to help you end this brutality." I was suddenly overcome with joy. I hugged him, resting my head on his chest. He paused, then gently stroked my hair. "Don't worry. I got your back."

Then, I heard a noise above. Tom looked up, confused. We heard a scream, followed by an other, more strangled this time. Tom and I exchanged glances. I put my index finger to my lips, then silently walked up to the tree. I jumped from branch to branch, 'till I was in the branches above the net. I peered down at the scene below.

Chris had a small boy in a headlock, and there was a magnificent silver crossbow on the net beside them, still loaded. I guessed that the kid was taking aim on Tom and I, when he was interrupted by Chris. They turned, and I saw the child's face. He was blonde, with deep blue eyes, was fair-skinned, and had some freckles sprinkled across his face. His expression was one of pure terror. He locked eyes with me. My stomach clenched so much in guilt, I threw up. I wiped my mouth, and looked back. The boy's face started to turn red, then blue. I couldn't watch any longer. I jumped down and ran across the net. "Stop! Stop!" Chris looked up, and dropped the boy, who fell to the net, gasping.

I ran to the boy's side. "Are you okay?" He nodded, still gasping. "Th-thank you." I looked up at Chris. He shook his head. "Caro, he was aiming a crossbow at your head! I couldn't let him do it, and I had no time to load..." I sighed, and sat down on the net. "The thing is... I just realized something." His expression changed to something I didn't recognize. "What is it?" I took a deep breath. "I realized that I have to finish my mom's work, and the 100th Games has to be the last one, and I'm the only one that can do that, so I'm gonna do it, even if it kills me." He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. "...And don't even think about trying to stop me, because you can't." He waited a minute, taking it all in, then he spoke. "Okay, well if I can't stop you, I guess my only option is to help you." I nodded "yeah." He forced a smile. "So, how can I help?" I smiled back, tearing up. "I-I don't know..." A tear rolled halfway down my cheek, where it stayed, heavy and cold. Chris smiled, for real this time, and wiped it away. "Well then I'll stay by your side until you give me a job to do."

I smiled, and more tears rolled down my cheeks. "I have no job for you right now, just promise you won't kill anyone else, okay?" He nodded. "That's the easiest promise I can make." He grinned. "Now, go back down there and end the games!" I nodded, and climbed down to meet Tom, who was sitting against the tree trunk. He stood up. "So you gonna come with me, or just sit there on your big butt and watch?" I sighed. My bottom's always been on the large side, but apparently it looks good, so whatever. Tom laughed. "C'mon, I'll help you up." I rolled my eyes and stood up. "Fine, Tomtom..." He sighed hearing the nickname that I made up for him when we were about 9. "For the last time... Do NOT call me Tomtom!" I giggled, and we started walking. "Okay, Toe. I will not call you Tomtom." He stopped. "Did you just call me Toe?" I nodded, grinning. He shook his head. "Okay... no."

We continued walking for a bit, talking, just like old days, well, almost. That's when I saw him. "Tom! Move!" But it was too late.


	26. Rebel Song

I don't own the hunger games trilogy

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><p>Tom was the first one to notice him. He nudged me. <em>Do that girl thingy and look over there. <em>I raised an eyebrow. _WHAT girl thing?_ He sighed. _That thing where you look without turning your head!_ I rolled my eyes. _You mean look but don't look! Okay._ I peeked through the corner of my eye, and turned white.

The Game maker was crouching behind a bush, with what looked like an oversized heat gun in his hands. I looked back at Tom. _It's because of what I said, isn't it?_ He nodded. I grabbed his hand. He rolled his eyes. I squeezed. _We have to act like we can't see him! And we have to make sure he's happy so he forgets what we said! _Tom knew what that meant. It meant drama, gossip, and scandal. I took a deep breath. "Hey it's really dark!" He took a deep breath. _Fine! Whatever, I'll play along, but you're paying for it..._ "Yeah... Isn't it nice?" I swallowed hard. "I-I'm scared." I squeezed myself closer to him, putting a hand on his biceps. He caught on. "Don't be scared!" He let go of my hand, and put an arm around my shoulders. "I'll protect you from the big bad monsters lurking in the dark!" I giggled, a little too high-pitched. "Okay! I feel safe now." He squeezed. "Forever and ever, baby." _You owe me... Big time._ I giggled again, like a pathetic love-struck schoolgirl. It was all I could do not to vomit. "You promise?" He nodded, "yeah," then paused for a second, and buried his face in my hair, whispering in my ear, loud enough for the Game maker to hear, but quiet enough to look legitimate. "I love you, babe." Then he kissed the top of my head. I giggled. "I love you too, Tomtom!" We started to walk again, keeping a leisurely pace, just like a love-struck couple would. The whole time, he held me close. It felt pretty weird.

When the sun started to rise, we sat by the tree trunk, and watched it, my head on his shoulder. When I peeked at the bush, the Game maker was there, watching. He wasn't sure whether he bought our little act or not. I swallowed hard. _He doesn't quite believe it..._ Tom tensed up slightly. _Are you F#$% kidding?_ He took a deep breath. "You know, this sunrise is almost as beautiful as you are!" I smiled. "You're just saying that!" He looked down at me. "No, I'm not." I looked at him. His face had a loving expression, as did mine, but our eyes showed a different story; We weren't in love, we were in survival mode. He smiled. "You're so beautiful," he muttered. I blushed, thanking the gods that I can blush on demand, and smiled, looking down at our interlaced fingers. I frowned slightly at my filthy and broken fingernails, and dirt-caked hands.

Normally, back at home in district 4, I had long, beautiful nails, that I decorated with the craziest designs, and my hands were so soft and pretty, and my fingers would be adorned with sparkly rings. That day, though, my fingernails were cracked and bleeding messes, that will probably never be the same, and my hands were dirty, and bleeding. Tom looked down at my hands. What's wrong?" I took a very deep breath. "I-I know this feels super shallow, but... My nails... They're ruined!" He squeezed my hand. "I think they're beautiful." I sniffed. "No! They're cracked, and ugly." He smiled. "I think they look better now." I looked at him, confused. He continued. "Now, they show how strong and courageous you are, and finally, everything that you've hidden underneath is showing." I sighed, "but I don't want all of that to show! It's hidden because it's hideous!" He laughed to himself. "Well, I think it's beautiful, and amazing, like you." I smiled, and looked into his eyes. He was such a good actor, I had to remind myself we were just putting on a show for the game maker. "You really think so?" He looked deep into my eyes. "I do." He leaned in a bit closer.

My heart started beating a bit harder. What was he going to do? He paused a second, inches away from my face. _Caro, quick question... Do you trust me?_ I swallowed. _Yes_. He smiled slightly. _Good._ I was confused for a split second, when he closed the distance between us, and he was kissing me. I felt a huge wave of mixed emotions. In my head, I was thinking that this was wrong, and weird, and just no, but something told me it was okay. I had never really kissed anyone before, so this whole thing was new to me. I hesitantly put my arms around his neck, and he held me. I closed my eyes.

After a little while, though, he pulled away. We just looked at each other for a bit, then he kissed me again, muttering something about morning. I blinked, and realized that we were lying down, arms and legs slightly tangled up. I unraveled myself from Tom, and stood up. I felt all funny; My lips were still tingling, I was blushing deeply, and I had butterflies in my stomach. I peeked over at the bush, and saw the Game maker. He had lowered his heat gun, and was watching us. He finally believed our act.

Tom and I got up, and walked, hand in hand, to the tent to wake the others. As soon as we got in the tent, we let go of each other's hands, and acted like nothing happened. Rel stretched and got up as we got in. "So, what did I miss?" I blushed, silently cursing my cheeks for being so betraying. Tom stepped forward, shaking Rick awake. "Hey. It's morning. Time to get up." Then he turned back to Rel. "Not much, but there's a Game maker outside, with what looks like a heat gun, so we gotta be careful." I nodded. "He's hiding in the blueberry bush." I woke up Abby. "Hey. Wake up, it's morning!" she groaned, and rolled over, mumbling. "Mom... Is saturday. I don't school day. Lemme mo' shleep..." With that, she passed out again. I paused, then shook her. "Abby! It's morning. Get up!" She sat up, eyes glassy. "Whu's goin' on?" Then she shook her head. "Oh... This is real?" We all nodded. She pointed to Rick, who was stretching, wearing no shirt, and Rel, who was in the middle of changing his shirt, so he was also bare-chested. "And... And they're real too?" I laughed. "Yes, they're real too." She blushed. "Oh. I thought it was all a dream... And I would wake up, on reaping day morning, and someone else'll be picked, and my life would be normal..." She sniffed.

We walked out of the tent, and I climbed the tree to meet Chris, who was sitting on the net, staring at something. I plopped down beside him. "Hey! What's up?" He shook his head. "Why didn't you tell me?" I cocked my head to a side. "Tell you what?" He sighed. "About Tom! If you would have told me you were together, I wouldn't have done the stuff I did... Man I'm sorry if I made stuff awkward, I didn't know!" He turned around to face me. "Can we just be friends?" I smiled. "Yeah! And there's something you have to know..." I whispered the whole story between Tom and I and the Game maker in his ear.

After I was done, he looked at me, trying to decide on what to say. Finally, he just said, "okay... But can we still just be friends?" I nodded. "For sure!" He grinned. "Great! So what are we going to do now?" I shrugged. "For a start, we'll go down to talk to the others..." He nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

The next 5 days were quite uneventful, and daily life was almost routine: The game maker remained in the bushes, watching on, as Tom and I pretended to be lovers, and I pretended to be cheating on Tom with Rel, all to keep the game makers happy. Tom and Rick would go fishing at least once a day, and Abby and I would go searching for edible plants, while Rel would hunt for small animals. Chris would guard camp from above, and the rest of us would take turns sleeping and guarding. We would take turns going to the oasis for water and berries, and to bathe, and, of course, Fil kept food and supplies abundant. on the occasional night, though, we watched a light show in the sky, featuring people that weren't as lucky as us. We calculated, and there were exactly 27 children left in the arena.

This was the point where people would go against their alliance. That meant that time was running out. If I was going to do anything, it was at this point, 10 days in, where it had to be done. In the midst of collecting water, I raised my face to the sky, and began to sing a song I once heard my mom singing when she thought she was alone.

_Are you, are you,_  
><em>Coming to the tree?<em>  
><em>Where they strung up a man they say murdered three.<em>  
><em>Strange things did happen here.<em>  
><em>No stranger would it be,<em>  
><em>If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.<em>

_Are you, are you_  
><em>Coming to the tree?<em>  
><em>Where the dead man called out for his love to flee.<em>  
><em>Strange things did happen here.<em>  
><em>No stranger would it be,<em>  
><em>If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.<em>

_Are you, are you_  
><em>Coming to the tree?<em>  
><em>Where I told you to run so we'd both be free.<em>  
><em>Strange things did happen here.<em>  
><em>No stranger would it be,<em>  
><em>If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.<em>

_Are you, are you_  
><em>Coming to the tree?<em>  
><em>Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.<em>  
><em>Strange things did happen here.<em>  
><em>No stranger would it be,<em>  
><em>If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree. <em>

I had hummed it when I was a child, but I was told it was a forbidden song, and to find something better to hum. This time, however, I sang it loud and clear, for everyone to hear. When I had finished, the mockingjays were already singing the melody, sweet and solemn, and the jabberjays were singing the whole song, every word more compelling than the last. Soon, other tributes joined in, and the whole arena was filled with the hypnotic melody of the forbidden song, playing over, and over again. I laughed, and headed back to camp, partially burdened by the water I was carrying. The rebellion has begun.

As soon as I got back, Tom, Rick, Rel, Abby, and Chris were all waiting for me, fully armed. Tom tossed me my bow, a full quiver of my arrows, some knives and daggers, and some rope contraption (apparently it turns a bow and arrow into a grappling hook and launcher...). Without a word, we walked into the tent, the forbidden song still ringing throughout the arena.

I quickly devised a plan: Rick, Rel, Tom, and Chris would stand in different positions on the beach encircling the arena. Abby and I would then swim out to the starting platforms. The boys would make sure no game makers passed the beach. Then I would shoot the one defect in the top of the arena with my arrow, and it'll close right away, so Abby'll start climbing the rope, and the boys and I will round up any other tributes, and bring them too. Abby would keep watch from above, while the rest of us find a way out. It was foolproof.

Suddenly, something moved in the bushes. It was a game maker. He raised his heat gun.


	27. Chapter 27

I don't own the hunger games trilogy

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><p>The Game maker raised the gun to his face, making my heart skip a beat. He pressed a button on the long, canon-like gun. What happened next all took place in under a second. The gun made a hissing noise, and a column of super-heated air exploded from the barrel. At the same time, Rel jumped on me, knocking us both to the ground, barely missing the heat. We landed hard on the floor. There was a click, no doubt the heat gun, and more hissing. I heard a scream. Looking up, I saw Rick throw a red-hot ember from the ground, straight at the game maker's face. He screamed, and I heard the dull thud of a body hitting the floor.<p>

We all just stayed frozen for a few seconds, taking in what happened. That's when I noticed an intense pain in my arm. I groaned, and opened my eyes. I hadn't realized they were closed. Then, I realized something. Rel was on top of me, pinning me down. He looked at me, his face millimeters away from mine, and we locked glances for a second, before he spoke. "You okay?" I nodded. He smiled, and got up. "Great! Now, get up." He offered a hand to help me up. I took it. "Thanks." I got up, then took a look at my arm, wincing. My sleeve had been singed off, and my skin was badly burned. I swallowed. "Ouch." Tom noticed the burn. "That's not good!" Hearing Tom, Chris looked at my arm. "Ouch! That's gotta hurt!" I took a deep breath, calming myself. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." I turned to Rick, who was sitting on the floor, clutching his hand. I kneeled beside him. "Hey, you okay?" He took a deep, shaky breath. "I'll live." I nodded, and gently touched his hand. "Let me see." He paused, then showed me his charred palm and fingers. I gently held his hand, being careful not to touch the burn, and looked at it.

The burn was pretty nasty, covering his palm and fingers. In short, most of the underside of his hand was charred, and bleeding, and there were ashes in the wound. I sighed. "Okay, we're going to have to bring you to some fresh water. Come with me."

We all walked over to the oasis, where I cleaned out Rick's hand, before rinsing out my arm. I sighed with relief as the cool water surrounded my burnt arm, taking away with it all of the burning at once. I stayed in the creek for a wile, while Tom, Abby, Chris, and Rel sat on the bank, and Rick swam around me, in the deeper part of the creek. For just a few minutes, we forgot all about the Games, the plan we had made, and the death that surrounded us. However, all good things must come to an end eventually.

Within a minute, the oasis went from beauty, to an inferno. Fireball upon fireball was launched from the bushes. Tom, Rel, Chris, and Abby came into the creek after us. They were all panicking. Rel grabbed my hand. "We're stuck!" I shook my head. "No, we're not." They looked at me, confused. I smiled. "Follow me," I said, swimming over to the cliff. When we had reached the rock, I turned to the others, laughing at their confused faces. Rick cocked his head to one side. "Are we supposed to climb that?" I laughed. That's when Abby and Chris remembered the cove. Their faces lit up in realization. Tom, noticing their collective flash of knowledge, picked my brain, and soon found my plan. He grinned. I smiled back at Rick. "No, we're going to swim under it," I said. Rel's jaw dropped. "How?" I ignored his question, and turned to everyone else. "Just follow me... Oh and you might want to take a deep breath," I said, smiling all-too-sweetly.

A quick 45-second swim through the underwater caverns later, we all came up in the cove. As I sat down on the soft sand, I watched the others, as they emerged from the water, coughing, sputtering, and gasping for air, as they crawled out of the hole, before collapsing in the sand, hyperventilating, as if they've been under water for 5 minutes or something! I laughed from my spot, leaning against the stone wall across the cove. Tom crawled over to where I was sitting, wheezing and gasping. "How," he gasped, "do," more gasps, "you," an other gasp, "hold-" I cut him off. "-Hold my breath?" I shrugged. "I don't know!" His face turned skeptical. I smiled. "Look. I don't know how I do it, I just hold my breath!" Tom rolled his eyes, and dragged himself to a seated position beside me, and stayed there, slumped against the wall, chest heaving. _You seriously wanted to kill us all, didn't you?_ I sighed. "Of course not!" Chris walked over to us, his legs looking like they were going to collapse. "Of course not what?" I looked up at him. "I was saying... Of course I wasn't trying to kill us all! I was saving you guys." He smiled. "Well, I'll admit it, it IS sort of hard to hold your breath for a minute," he paused to catch his breath, "while swimming through a very narrow maze of sharp turns, and dead ends!" Tom nodded, turning to me. "Yeah Caro! Not everyone has superhuman lungs!" Chris grinned. "Well, you gotta admit it... It's pretty cool..." Tom reluctantly agreed. I blushed. Chris sat down beside me, and whispered in my ear, "kinda makes me wonder what else you can do with that body of yours..." That made me blush even more.

Tom got up, and walked away. _Just screw him already!_ Hearing this, I blushed, my face turning a very unattractive shade of red. Fil's laughter exploded in my head. _Yeah, Caro! You know you want to._ Chris inched a little closer. "You know... You're really beautiful..." I giggled, my cheeks burning. "Stop it! You're making me blush!" He smiled. "That's a pretty cute face." I turned to him. "You really know how to make a girl blush, don't you?" He laughed. "Yeah, and I'm not planning on stopping!" I smiled, rolling my eyes, "alrighty then," and got up. By now, everyone had recovered from the swim, more or less, and were sitting on the sand. I raised my voice, "hey everyone, listen up!" 5 sets of eyes turned towards me. I took a deep breath, "okay, so, as you can see, we're safe for now." Rick cut me off. "Hey, why don't we move camp here?" I continued, "as I was saying, we're safe here for the time being, but we can't stay here permanently, because the water level rises very fast at least once a day-" Tom cut in, "but we can deal with a couple inches of water!" I clenched my jaw. This was getting annoying. "Well, you see, the water rises more than that. Actually, it fills this whole cove, and shoots out of the holes in the ceiling, creating geysers and a temporary lake." Rel's jaw dropped. "So you mean to say that you brought us into a ticking time bomb?" I sighed. "Well, in a way, yes, but I know how to get out of this!" Everyone stared at me blankly, with the exception of Abby and Chris, who backed me up.

Together, the three of us explained to the others how we escaped the cove last time it had flooded, and (much to my annoyance) Chris and Abby added how I was stuck for at least a minute under water, but somehow survived. Geez! They made it sound like I was being heroic or something... All I did was get stuck, and get unstuck, honestly! Anyway, after our explanation, Rick got up. "Okay, so we're safe now, right?" I nodded. "Yup," then I sat back down. "But you guys had better get comfy for now, because we might be here for a little while." Everyone nodded, and settled back down, me between Chris and Tom, and Abby snuggled up with Rick and Rel.

Soon enough, the water raised, and within minutes, we found ourselves being shot out of the holes in the ceiling, and landing in a lake. Once again, I was the last one out, so when I emerged, nobody was in sight. Upon noticing this, I swam out of the lake, vaulted over a bush, and landed in some moss in the shade of a willow tree... Right in Rel's lap. I blushed, and apologized, shifting my weight to my hands, so I can get off of his lap. He just smiled. "It's okay! Tom's in the woods way on the other side of the lake!" He put his arms around my waist. "Know what that means?" That's when I remembered I was supposedly cheating on Tom with Rel. I forced a smile. "Oh really? What about the others?" He grinned, leaning against the tree, and pulling me down with him, so I was leaning back on him. "They're all on their way to camp with Tom!" I leaned my head back, so I was looking at his face. "So, you mean to say..." I bit my lip, thinking out what I was going to say next. "...That we're all alone here, and nobody'll find us?" He nodded "Yeah..." He shifted. "So watcha wana do?"

My heart skipped a beat. Was he seriously asking this? I tried my best not to act as scared as I felt. "Well... What do you want to do?" He smiled, and rolled over, so he was on top of me, supporting his weight on his muscular arms. He gave me a peck on the nose, then dropped himself beside me, lying on his back. He gave me a look that said _Well, wat are you waiting for?_ My stomach did a mini flip when I realized what he wanted me to do. I slowly raised myself to my hands and knees, and crawled over to where he was, before gently laying myself flat on top of him, a little too close for comfort for my liking, but this was the Games, and comfort does not exist here. I felt his rock-hard abs flex, and he sat up, pulling my legs towards him, so I was sitting on his lap, straddling him. He put his hands on my thighs, pulling him even closer till our hips were pressed together. _Oh god_, I thought. _How far is he going to go?_ His hands moved up, now they were in my hair, and he started to kiss me, which wasn't so bad, after all, he was very attractive and a great kisser. I put my arms around his neck, and his hands went down to my butt. My heart started throbbing. _What was he planning on doing?_ He leaned forwards, and soon enough, he was back on top of me, holding himself up on his elbows, and he kept kissing me. I felt terribly out of my comfort zone, but, when we stopped for a breath, I noticed a game maker watching, smiling. _That pervert, _I thought.

We stayed there for the next little while, Rel moving me around the little clearing; standing, sitting, lying down, even up a tree. I knew that he was trying to seduce me, but I acted then he whispered something, and stood up, picking an apple out of a tree beside the willow. He passed it to me, and I ate it hungrily. "Thanks." He sat down next to me, took a crunch out of a second apple, and studied me. "You look cold," he said. Thinking about it, I actually was a bit cold... I nodded. "Freezing." He got up, "here," and took off his shirt, sighing with relief, as the cool air reached his sweating skin. "That's better!" He smiled, and passed me his woolen shirt, a gift from Fil from the first cold night. I put it on gratefully. It was incredibly warm and soft, although quite baggy on me. The shoulder seams were halfway to my elbows, and the sleeves completely covered my hands! I smiled, thanking him. "So, how does it look?" He laughed. "Well, it looks a tad baggy... but if we do this..." He rolled up my sleeves, "and this..." He bunched up all of the extra material in the bottom of the shirt and tucked it into the top of my pants. He examined his handiwork. "There. That's better!" I laughed, and looked down at myself. I looked slightly ridiculous, but I was comfortable. I giggled. "I look ridiculous!" He laughed some more. "I think you look amazing!" I looked back down at myself. "Really?" He nodded. I blushed. "Thanks!" I got up. He was leaning against a tree, and he was bare-chested. For just a second, something in my head told me that I wanted to rip off every scrap of clothes off of him... _Stop it,_ I told myself. I calmed myself down, then put the act back on. After all, this WAS a show, and our survival depended on how good of a spectacle we put on.

I walked closer to him. "You know," I paused for effect, "someone like you should watch it." He smiled confused. "Why?" I smiled back. "Well..." I played a bit with a strand of hair, something I knew would drive him crazy. "With abs like that... You should watch yourself..." He laughed to himself, and put his hands on my waist, looking slightly surprised at how thin it was, and pulled mw into his arms. My heart was pounding. He tilted his head down and kissed me again, and we found ourselves lying back in the moss, my head resting on his bare chest. He sighed contentedly. I smiled. He was so comfortable. Yawning, I opened my eyes, noticing the setting sun. I sat up. "We should go back. The others are probably wondering where we are..." He nodded, and got up, stretching. "Okay, sounds like a plan."

We picked the rest of the ripe apples from the tree, and carried them back in a bag Rel had brought. We were halfway back to camp, when I stepped on a loose rock, and twisted my ankle. Screaming, I fell to the ground, unable to put my weight on my ankle. Rel quickly came back, and, before I could explain what happened, I was slung over his strong shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and he carried me back to camp.

When we finally arrived, we were greeted by Tom, Chris, and Abby, who noticed the apples almost immediately. "Oh good! You guys brought supper!" She took the bag. "That's quite a lot, too. Must have taken ages to collect!" Without any other excuse for our tardiness, we nodded. Abby took apples into tent, gesturing to me to follow.

Inside, we ate some apples and gutted some fish Rick got from the river. It was messy work, so we were full of guts and fish blood when we had finished, but the fish were prepared, more or less. Exiting the tent, we bumped into Chris, who had a plump, half-plucked bird in his hand. I jumped and dropped my fish. He smiled and steadied me with a hand on my arm, making it tingle where he had touched it. I managed a smile, blushing. He pick up the fallen fish and passed it to me. "Here. Nobody'll notice the moss once it's cooked." He smiled conspiratorially. "I won't tell them." I looked at the ground, giggling. "Thanks," I took the fish, "the fire's lit, right?" He nodded, so Abby and I scurried off to the fire, and sat for the next few minutes with Tom, Rel, and Rick.

Out of nowhere, Tom grabbed my hand. _Game maker. In the bush behind that oak._ I rested my head on his shoulder, looking at the bush through the corner of my eye. The game maker had a gun of sorts this time, a bandage on his face from where Rick threw an ember at him. He shifted, starting to notice my watching him. To avoid detection, I sat up, and passed the fish to Rick, who skewered them on sticks, and propped them up over the fire, rotating them every few minutes or so. Within a half hour, the fish was done, and we were eating it hungrily. Chris came just as we finished the last of the fish with his bird, now fully plucked, and skewered that on a stick. Soon enough, we were enjoying some bird, that tasted mildly like chicken

Suddenly, it dawned on me: the perfect plan. In less than a second, I forgot all of the other ridiculous plans that I had dreamed up, and I got an idea; one so obvious, yet nobody's thought of it in a hundred years... I grinned to myself. Tom quickly noticed the insane smile spreading across my face like a piano, and, knowing me, and all of my previous master plans, he knew exactly what was up. _Watcha got planned THIS time?_ I laughed to myself. _A fail-proof plan._ He sighed, disbelieving, so I explained to him my stroke of pure genius.

In a nutshell, it was simply to get everyone to stop fighting each other, and if the remaining other tributes refuse to cooperate, we'll just let them kill each other off, then, when we're the last six alive, we'll refuse to kill each other. I smiled to myself as I went over it in my head. It was perfect; simple, and the obvious solution, yet so perfect. Tom turned the plan over and over in his mind, before grinning almost as widely as me, and laughing like a crazy person. _That could actually work!_ He laughed a bit more. "We could actually get out of here!" Everyone else stared on, as Tom and I laughed like insane people. Rick smiled at us. "What's so funny?" I grinned, and told them my plan. They all started smiling and laughing too. Soon, we were all giggling, and hugging, made giddy by the possibility of making it out of this arena. We were like this for the next half hour; Rick, Chris and Rel even kissed me, right in the mouth, right in front of Tom, who pretended to be too happy to mind too much. (Although we both knew he didn't care at all, and even found it funny that shy little Caro was kissing all these guys.)

By about midnight, however, Abby fell asleep, right on Rick's lap. Laughing, Rick picked her up, and carried her, newlywed-style into the tent, where he gently put her down on her bed of moss, and covered her with a fleece blanket, (an other gift from Fil) before pushing a loose strand of hair from her face. He sat there for a bit, watching her expression relax, as she fell asleep. He stood up once she was sufficiently asleep, and laid down on his bed, drifting off to sleep in and I took the last two beds, and Chris volunteered to sit awake in the tent with us, leaving Rel to stand guard outside. I took a deep breath, and let it out in a contented sigh.

I felt like I had just fallen asleep, when Chris nudged me awake. "Hey, Caro. Wake up." Opening my eyes, I noticed that it was still dark out. Being careful not to wake the others, we tiptoed out of the tent, and over to the tree trunk, completely unnoticed by Rel, who was fast asleep. We climbed up the tree, and were lying down on the giant hammock that was suspended under the branches, camouflaged from the ground below. I yawned, and stretched. "So why'd you bring me up here?" He smiled. "Look up." Confused, I obliged.

That's when I saw it.


	28. Chapter 28: just to end it all

All right, because carojeans didn't feel like finishing the story properly and she promised she'd add me as a character (something bout the "head conspirator tht kills Ice" [which would've been super cool]), but too little too late, she got bored before she could get there, and thus she let me take over the story. In short terms, because none of this story makes sense in the first place, neither would the ending, so I played around with the landscape.

From here the story cuts off at ch.24, not 27.

If you did read ch.24 (you probably didn't), they're in a forest, nowhere close to a cliff. Well guess what? BAM, now they are. Also on the subject of recapping, they got attacked by some beast/demon-ish thing.

ALSO, CAROJEANS REALIZED HER CHARACTER WAS A MARY SUE. YES, THAT IS WHY WE ARE KILLING HER. RIDDING THE WORLD OF MARY SUES ON FANFIC AT A TIME PEOPLE.

_ONE FANFIC AT A TIME._

* * *

><p>She stood over the dead body, horrified though she knew it'd end like this anyways. But it doesn't matter if you know or not, shit still happens. At least that's what she told herself. Because their last hope was dead. Caroline Jeans was dead.<p>

What a cruel word, is it not?

Her last breath was long lost in the wind when she was falling, faster and faster down the steep face of the rock. Her light brown hair was now dyed deep crimson, and her face caked with dirt and blood. But it was her eyes that where the most frightening. Opened, hauntingly staring at the sky, still wondering why, _why_, when they were so close [so _damn_ close] to finishing, _why_ did it have to end like this.

No one would ever answer her.

The unnamed girl bent over, silently setting out a prayer she knew would reach no god(but it never matters whether you now or not), and closed her eyes. The cannon sounded.

Caroline Jeans was dead.

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><p>And the horror story is done, nothing to see here folks!<p> 


End file.
